Meet the Whittakers: The Family Who 'BROKE' My Heart

Before you get ready to fight because of the title of my blog post which may allude to the fact that this is the family that broke my heart or hurt me....read on...because it's quite the contrary.  Their story was my first exposure to international adoption.  It broke my hardened heart and helped me to exchange it for a heart that was more flexible to be shaped for God's will.....so here we go....
 

The Whittakers...what can you possibly say about this family?  They are two of the coolest people I know (well in the blog world that is) who are giving their children the adventures of their lives!  Heather and Carlos are the epitome of FUN!!!  Carlos is an incredible musician that you can find on iTunes and here on his blog.  Heather is an amazing, stay-at-home mom, who is passionate about mission work, Christ, her family, and much more.  (...and if you ever want cool ideas on creating memorable family nights, visit this part of Heather's blog.  You'll be inspired in a way that will change your family quality time together...trust me!)

It's so crazy because I stumbled upon them only because our church staff visited North Point a couple of years ago for an extensive period of time.  Since that time, we've watched how they 'do' church and are always inspired by their creativity and thinking out-of-the box.  During that time, Carlos was on staff at one of their campuses and I stalked his blog looking at some of the incredible ways that he could get people thinking in creative ways about ministry.  He's thinks out of the box and refuses to live in a safe, Christian shell that excludes the rest of the world....love it!

Well, one thing led to another and I found his wife's amazing blog.  Between the two of them, I somehow stumbled upon their YouTube videos of their adoption journey to their son, Losiah in Korea.  When I first saw it, I just thought how nice.  NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS did I think that their video would plant the initial seed -- literally break the ground and begin to transition my hardened heart of Michelle's Will to more fertile ground in my heart of God's Will.  What happened to my heart over the course of a couple weeks or so is difficult to put into words.  My heart began to soften as God did an unexplainable work in it.  I cried for days as I was led to Ethiopia and the rest is HIStory.  So with all of my 'stumbling upon' with the Whittakers (which I don't think is coincidence at all), I thought I'd share with you their travel story and literal journey to Losiah.  What's so unique about their videos in comparison to many other 'Meetcha' & 'Gotcha' Day videos is that you will see over a course of 14 video updates the detailed rising emotions of their video diary from the time that they left their home in the US to their arrival in Korea to the day that they have Losiah in their arms forever.

So grab your popcorn, a beverage of choice, and lots of kleenex...here's a story that will have you in belly laughs one moment because they really are a comedic couple and in the next you'll be in tears as you see the rawness of when they realize they have Losiah forever.  I hope their videos change you as they did me.

Instead of posting the videos here, it will be much simpler for you to jump to Carlos' YouTube page so that you can view the videos on autoplay (Once the first video comes to an end, the next one will be automatically loaded.)  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/loswhit#p/c/D25616FB0EB7F706/0/KwMPb64ONgo