Who We Are
Matt, Emily, Whitney, and Jackson Bertholic
Our story begins way back in the 1960’s when our mothers met in junior high school. They formed a friendship that remained through college, marriages, and children. Through our growing-up years, our families were close and spent much time together. In 1997, when Matt was 22 and Emily was 17, our parents noticed the good chemistry between us. We began dating a year later at the suggestion of our parents. During the next 3 1/2 years, we walked through some hard times. Emily’s mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and Matt’s parents divorced after 27 years of marriage and eight children. At the time we didn’t know that God would use those painful events to shape our hearts and to prepare us for His call.
We were married in 2001, and quickly settled into teaching careers at a Christian school in San Jose, California. During our four years of teaching, we watched helplessly as several of our little students walked through their parents’ divorces. Again, God was working on our hearts. In 2003, we attended a Weekend to Remember marriage conference, put on by FamilyLife. We loved the material and our marriage grew stronger over the course of the weekend. Eager for ways to share what we had learned with our students’ parents, we attended a staff opportunities meeting at the conference.
We were not expecting to hear God’s voice that day. But we heard it loud and clear as God pulled our hearts toward full-time ministry with FamilyLife. We walked out of that meeting stunned and tearful. It was as if God had held a blacklight over our lives and revealed how each painful experience, each divorced couple, each hurting child, had shaped us for ministy to families. Two months later we signed on with FamilyLife. In February of 2006, we packed up our family and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to begin serving with FamilyLife.
After four, wonderful years on staff with FamilyLife, God has returned our hearts back to our first passion: children. On April 30th, 2010, we will say farewell to FamilyLife, and begin a new adventure as staff with the Discover God for Kids project of the Bright Media Foundation. We are excited for this next chapter in our lives, and are looking forward to getting started.
Whitney and Jackson are our fantastic children.
Born in 2003, Whitney keeps us on our toes! She is thriving in the 2nd grade at a local public school, where her favorite subjects are math and science. Outside of school, her chief pursuit is swimming. Whitney swims for a year-round, competetive swim team. She loves the water and has made great progress this year. Her favorite stroke is backstroke. She is also involved with Awana, and looks forward to earning her Sparky Award in May. Whitney also loves reading, drawing, and playing outside with her brother. Red is her favorite color, and she adores her two cats, Pixie and Zoe.
Jackson is our Arkansas baby, born shortly after we moved to Little Rock in 2006. Jackson looks forward to preschool every Wednesday because he loves his teacher and gets to paint pictures. Jackson is a typical boy on the go, enjoying superheroes, his toy cars, throwing the ball, and digging in his sandbox. The highlight of each day for Jackson is picking Whitney up from school. He is crazy about his sister, and especially likes it when they draw and color together.. Jackson’s favorite colors are orange and blue, and his current burning desire is to get a pet dog.
Matt enjoys writing and performing puppet shows, playing volleyball, softball, and disc golf, and scouting out good, local restaurants. Emily has a freelance photography business, specializing in children’s and family portrait photography. She also enjoys scrapbooking, reading, writing, and spending time with her girlfriends.
To follow our family’s adventures, visit Emily’s blog, Masterpiece Mothering.
