Their story captured millions with the message: True love exists

Just six photos of their wedding. That was all it took for Anita Wing Lee and Tim Muttoo’s social media post to catch like fire.

To date, their wedding post has clocked upwards of 140 million views.

Out of the millions of heartfelt comments they’ve received is one common sentiment: Thank you for helping us believe again in true love.

“If you’re still waiting for your special person, take heart. Keep the faith,” Anita said in her wedding post.

“Here’s a detail that always makes me smile: I never prayed for someone tall. You know how people write out lists of what they’re hoping for in a partner? I never actually wrote down ‘tall’ … because there were other things that mattered more. I prayed for someone with substance and character: A visionary, a humble world traveller, big-hearted and creative, with deep faith.

“As I got to know Tim, I saw he was all of these things. But … he wasn’t tall.

“And when I asked God about it, He said, ‘Well, it wasn’t on your list!’”

Tim and Anita were married in a 180-year-old church in June this year. Their ceremony included a poignant congregational blessing – “it still gives me goosebumps”, says Anita.

Anita, who is 5ft 3inches (1.6m) and Tim, who is 4ft (1.2m), made a striking couple at their wedding in June this year. They were not only striking in appearance but also in their message: God’s definition of love may not look anything like the world’s trope.

In a Dream Brave podcast, Tim recalled with emotion a conversation he’d had with Anita: “I said, ‘Anita, would you have dated me and married me if I was 6ft tall? And she says, ‘Absolutely not.’ And I said, ‘Why, Anita?’ And she said, ‘Because your heart would be different, your generosity would be different, your character would be different, your whole life of who you are would not be the person that I’ve fallen in love with.’

“She didn’t fall in love with my body, she fell in love with who I am.”

This is the story of how Tim and Anita fell in love when they surrendered their will to God’s wisdom.

Created with purpose

Tim was born in Toronto, Canada, the youngest of three sons to parents who had immigrated from Guyana and the West Indies.

Neither his parents nor his older brothers have Achondroplasia, a genetic disorder Tim was born with that resulted in dwarfism.

But Tim never saw his height as a limitation.

His parents, both teachers, did not treat Tim’s dwarfism as a deficit. “They were my biggest encouragers and cheerleaders,” Tim said.

“Everyone has challenges to face. I have dwarfism, but you might have a child who’s shy, or a child who has a learning disability – those things become part of defining a person but then it’s up to your parents to say, yes, you might have a learning disability or physical disability, but let’s not look at what you can’t do; let’s look at mechanisms that help you deal with what you need to get on with life. And that’s what I had growing up.”

In the podcast, Tim recalled how, when he could not reach light switches as a child, his father created a contraption that allowed him to turn the lights on and off.

Like his brothers, he was not exempt from household chores.

“We were building a home, and I wanted to be part of that building. My contribution might have been a little different from my brothers’, but we all contributed. My parents gave me that identity of knowing that I’m part of the building.”

The Muttoo family was also Christian. Their home was one where devotions and Bible reading were daily habits.

Tim, interacting with students at Kenya’s Karumo Technical Training Institute in 2022. His charity H204ALL provides clean water for developing communities around the world.

This rootedness led to Tim’s belief that “God created me with intentionality and purpose. What I may see as a limitation, He sees as an opportunity. When God knit my spirit to my body, it was no accident that He chose for me to be small.”

Tim went on to become an engineer, inventor and speaker. After a pivotal mission trip to Uganda, he left his corporate career to follow his passion for building clean, safe water projects in developing countries through the charity H2O4ALL which he co-founded.

“Don’t bring him yet!”

Unknown to Tim, the love of his life was growing up in the same Toronto suburb. Her Pastor parents had immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong when Anita was 11.

A shy middle child, with an older sister and a younger brother, Anita did well in school. She was valedictorian on completion of her Master of Divinity, and then pursued an MBA.

“Travel Anita” has visited 41 countries, including spending a semester on exchange in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2014.

Anita’s creative bent saw her build a brand out of “impact storytelling”, leading her to become a brand strategist and content producer.

As her list of achievements grew, so did her adventures.

She volunteered in refugee camps in Greece, coached entrepreneurs in Ukraine and Russia, hiked to Everest Base Camp, became a certified free diver and travelled to 41 countries.

Life was so full and exciting for Anita, in fact, that even though she figured she would settle down with her dream man one day, even in her late 20s she was telling God: “Don’t bring him yet!”

The miracle

Like Anita, Tim knew he wanted to get married one day. Unlike Anita, he was ready for a serious relationship.

“I never actually thought I’d stay single, because I knew who God created me to be – I’m very social, I love people. I knew in my heart I wouldn’t be single forever,” Tim told Salt&Light.

“But as I got older, I knew it was getting more difficult. You get more set in your ways; there are certain things you’ve framed in your life. With every year that passed, I began to think: God, this has to be Your miracle.”

Their miracle would unfold in a little townhouse complex Anita moved into in 2020.

It was the same complex where Tim’s longtime friends, Jordan and Sonya, lived, and the three neighbours quickly became friends. Jordan and Sonya had graduated from Catch The Fire’s School of Ministry nearly a decade earlier – the same organisation Anita was working in at the time.

“It felt like one of those ‘small world’ moments that naturally led to a growing friendship,” wrote Anita in a blog about her love story with Tim.

When Tim and Anita met at Jordan’s birthday party, Tim was struck by Anita’s warmth and vivacity. On Anita’s part, she figured that “anyone who was a friend of Jordan’s and Sonya’s had to be a good person – I assumed Tim was no exception”.

It was only a year later, when Anita moved to Niagara, that the two became friends.

Tim used to spend weekends in Niagara, just 45 minutes’ drive from Toronto. And when he mentioned to Jordan that he was headed to Niagara one day, Jordan said: “Hey, did you know Anita has moved there?”

Anita was living in a country home next to the vineyard for which she was doing some consulting work. Not many of her friends could make the trek up for a visit, so she was pleased to hear that Tim was dropping by.

The two had such a great time hanging out that one visit turned into frequent ones.

Long walks and talks during Tim’s visits to Anita’s home in Niagara revealed a depth of connection and like-mindedness between them.

“We’d have meals and walked the fields and have these long conversations about our travels and our faith and our life experiences,” recalled Anita. 

“As time went on, I started to notice something. Whenever Tim was around, I felt a little happier.”

Tim felt a similar connection. “We shared countless special moments, walking and talking for hours in the fields near the winery where she lived. I had never connected with someone like this before.”

When Tim casually invited Anita along for one of his H2O4ALL trips to California, she accepted.

It was on that trip that their feelings were exposed.

Anita was talking about her upcoming year-long sabbatical: “I was planning to travel the world from February 2024 to February 2025. I’d been working in Toronto for a number of years and was excited to think this might be the comeback of Travel Anita.

“Then Tim said, ‘What about me?’

“I replied, ‘What do you mean? I’ll see you like the rest of my friends – several times a year.’

“He pressed it and said, ‘Well I don’t understand – why would you leave all your friends?’ And I was like, ‘Excuse me?’ I thought that was a bit rude! I said, ‘I’m not leaving them, they’re still my friends.’

“But I knew what he was saying: I don’t want to be in the bucket with your other friends that you only see a few times a year. The awkward moment had to end, so I went to bed. And the next day I acted normally.

“But I valued him as a person and as a friend. And when we returned to Toronto, I started discerning and praying, ‘Do I like him back?’”

Love without limits

Meanwhile Tim was wrestling with his feelings.

“I went to my dad’s gravesite because it was solemn and quiet. And as I sat on a park bench, I said to God, ‘What do I do? Do I push more, do I pull back?’ You can’t force someone to love you.

“And I heard God speak to me in this gentle voice: ‘If there’s love, it will grow.’ I felt such peace because I knew God was a part of this journey of ours.”

As Anita talked with God, she felt God impress upon her: “Why are you trying so hard to push Tim away? What’s wrong with him?”

“And obviously the first thing was, ‘He’s so short.’ I could see Tim as a life partner. But the romantic partner part I had to process because there’s a Hollywood cliché of what a couple looks like and we were an anomaly.”

Reading the book, Love without Limits, by evangelist and motivational speaker Nick Vujicic and his wife Kanae Miyahara, Anita saw that “God used that book to speak to my heart”.

Vujicic has Tetra-amelia Syndrome, a rare medical condition characterised by the absence of arms and legs.

Nick and Kanae Vujicic’s book, Love without Limits, gave Anita insights into discerning the characteristics of a God-given husband.

In the book, Kanae described her discerning process for a husband, including questions such as: Is he a man of God? Can you see yourself spending your life with him?

“I asked myself the same questions about how I feel about Tim, and it was obvious that he was all of those things. There was no good reason to say no. I had my answer.”

The challenge was convincing their parents.

A huge journey

For a few weeks, Anita “had a huge journey with my parents”, who were concerned about the kind of future Tim and Anita might have.

Tim met their consternation with patience. All his life, he had watched people go through the process of judging and then accepting him for the person he was. This would be no different.

Anita and her parents spent time in family therapy, which “gave my parents the space to feel heard and to process things”.

Tim’s proposal was “simple and sweet”, says Anita. They got engaged in September 2024, with the blessing of both sets of parents.

Her father came around first because he could see how Tim’s work in H2O4ALL was built on Christian values, allowing the Church to be a source of water, and hope, for communities.

“I was praying through it all,” Tim said. “The fact that they could talk about it in therapy was healthy. I wasn’t bitter towards them; they’d just never met a guy like me. I knew they would come to see that God created me to be me.”

The two have worked together on H204ALL projects, with Anita leading corporate volunteer groups to countries like Kenya and Cuba, and creating visual content to document the charity’s impact on communities.

Her mother came around when she saw how Tim was a man of God. And by the time Tim and Anita were engaged the following September, Anita’s parents had come to love Tim. And the feeling was mutual.

“That’s one of the things we’re challenging people to consider: Do you trust God with your relationships?” said Tim.

“Tell them: God loves you”

“The path that Anita and I are taking is not all roses and butterflies,” said Tim. “I think God is calling us to challenge people with the message: Is there such a thing as true love?”

Four months into the marriage. The happy couple celebrates each month as a milestone.

They have received thousands of messages thanking them for telling a love story that has challenged stereotypes, encouraged those who have lost hope in love, and inspired people to trust God in the waiting.

“We haven’t taken God out of our love story just to become viral. We only posted a couple of our wedding photos, and the fact that our story, God’s story, has reached millions globally – you can’t orchestrate that. Only God can do it.”

Going digital with their vulnerabilities has not been easy. Inevitably, there are the naysayers. (“It comes with the territory.”)

There have been snide remarks that Tim got the girl because he must be rich.

“At first I went through this emotional journey of like: Wow, these people are so rude, I want to give them a piece of my mind,” admitted Anita. “But then I really felt God impress upon my heart: That’s not what your platform’s for. Anger will only beget more anger.

“So I asked God, ‘Well, what should I tell them then?’ And He said, ‘Tell them the same thing you’d tell everyone, ‘God is there for them and He loves them.’

“When there is too much noise around the comments, I try to listen for what God wants to say to me through it.”

A relationship is not often considered a ministry, but theirs has become one.

“One of the things that united us as a couple was the belief that God has something big for us to do together,” say Tim and Anita.

“I believe ministry is everything we do,” Tim added. “Going outside to put out the garbage is ministry. Saying ‘hi’ to my neighbour is ministry. Being friends with people who don’t look like us, don’t act like us, don’t believe like us, is also ministry. Anita and I want to encompass that and embrace what God has for us in this journey.

“One of the things that united us as a couple was the belief that God has something big for us to do together, a unique calling on our lives that would be activated as we got married and stepped into this new chapter together,” said Anita.

“My height turned out to be a gift!” Tim said. “My physicality allowed us to press into God and press into each other.”

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