Today we are taking the opportunity to introduce you to the “family” behind our family business.
Matt is the 4th child of 5 and grew up in western Michigan. He spent his childhood fishing and also got into wood-working as a teenager. He has a very analytical mind and is always investigating new ideas and ways of doing things.
I (Elizabeth) grew up in southern California as the oldest of 4. I was into all kinds of sports and knew from a fairly young age that I wanted to have a large family. After a “reversion” to the faith during my senior year in high school I set out to learn anything I could about the faith and that is how I eventually ended up a theology major.
Matt and I (Elizabeth) met in the fall of 2002 at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He was a freshman majoring in Elementary Education and I was a transferring junior majoring in Theology. We began dating about 3 months after we met and were engaged on August 14, 2004 (feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe) shortly before we left for a semester in Austria with FUS. This semester was my last and I waited patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) for January 7, 2006, our wedding day. We then went back to FUS for Matt’s last semester. We moved to south central Kentucky to be near my family and that August Matt began teaching as a middle school science teacher and on September 29th we were blessed with our “honeymoon baby” Maximilian Francis.
Max is almost 7 and is very inquisitive (just like his daddy.) His favorite hobbies are Legos, reading and just running around being a boy!
Isabella Clare joined our family on January 22, 2008. Bella is an independent little girl and will spend hours at the table drawing and crafting. At 5, she is very excited to begin Kindergarten in just a week.
Olivia Irene is 3.5 and is our free spirit, often going the opposite direction as everyone else. She loves life and is ready and eager to try most anything.
Benjamin Joseph is 20 months and absolutely MUST be included in everything the “big kids” are doing. He is an absolute joy to be around and is picking up new words all the time.
We are expecting #5 in mid September; a little boy, who is still nameless. For now we have taken to calling him “Blueberry” (Olivia’s idea.)
When we launched Design My Rosary February 2012, we hoped that some day Matt would be able to stay home and work from home. After much prayer, consideration and an opportunity to supplement income with web design, Matt resigned his position as a teacher and has been working tirelessly to make Design My Rosary a success. Pray for us! We have such a wonderful Catholic community where we live here in KY and enjoy Mass weekly at the Fathers of Mercy chapel. (If you don’t know who they are you should check them out here!!)
Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. And now for the shameless plug 🙂 If you are in the market for a Rosary, check us out. We hand make all our Rosaries with quality supplies we have tested ourselves. Our site has hundreds of items to choose from which makes it possible to design your Rosary thousands of different ways. We enjoy seeing all of the designs our customers come up with and every Rosary is truly unique. Take some time also to sign up for our monthly newsletter in the right column of this blog so you will receive all of the announcements about new things at Design My Rosary (no spam ever, we promise!)
God bless you all,
Matt, Elizabeth, Max, Bella, Olivia, Benjamin and “Blueberry”
Blessings to all, I received my rosary and have not been able to take it out of my hands. It is simply beautiful. Please be assured that with every rosary prayed your intentions are remembered. Laudem Gloriae, Barbara