Thomas Rhett learned a lot of life lessons by adopting his oldest daughter, Willa Gray, from Uganda in 2017. The adoption, although not easy, in the end not only gave him a daughter, but strengthened both his marriage to his wife, Lauren Akins, and his Christian faith.
“I mean, to me, marriage is super fun and all the good things that come with marriage, but I think that the hardships during a marriage really create your rock, in your marriage, if that makes any sense,” Thomas said (via Nash Country Daily). “There’s no marriage in the universe that is just a breeze the whole way through. And I think one of the most beautiful bits about a marriage is sacrifice.
“And so, when we were going over to Uganda, back and forth and in the process to adopt Willa Gray, it was definitely one of the toughest times in our marriage, ever, for multiple reasons,” he added.
Now that they are also parents to two-year-old Ada James, and 2-month-old Lennon Love, Thomas can look back fondly on the trying experience, but he admits doing the work to bring Willa Gray home was exhausting.
“[Lauren] was in Uganda, pregnant, while I was back in America playing shows, and I remember leaving a stage somewhere in Arizona, and flying from Arizona straight back to Uganda, then back to Nashville, then back to Uganda,” Thomas recounted. “And it’s just like we were just exhausted, mentally, physically, emotionally. And then finding out halfway through the process that we’re going to have to live in Uganda for an extra five or six months to make sure the adoption went through. There were just so many lessons.
“And I think through that, we grew so much stronger as a couple, because really we learned how to rely on each other, but also learned how to rely so much more on the Lord, just because in circumstances like that, you don’t have any control over any of it,” he continued. “I mean, you are literally at the mercy of the government, or a probation officer, or whatever it is.”
Adopting a child from Uganda was an arduous task, especially since Thomas and Lauren never talked seriously about adoption, at least not until Lauren met the little girl at an orphanage.
“We had talked about it off and on, but it wasn’t something that we’d sat down and had a full-on adoption conversation,” Lauren revealed on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
That all changed when Lauren held Willa Gray for the first time, and fell instantly in love.
“I was in Uganda in 2016, and I had a picture of one of the babies there, and I had shared it on social media,” Lauren recalled. “And when I finally got to FaceTime [Thomas] that night, I was telling him her story, ‘Babe, we know so many people who are trying to adopt right now, and this little girl needs a forever home.’”
As soon as Thomas heard Lauren talk about the toddler, he felt compelled to make her their child.
“When I talked to [Lauren] on the phone that night and she said that we need to find her a home,” Thomas remembered. “It was after a concert, and I was going to bed, and I was like, ‘Well, bring her home.’ And I don’t fully remember even saying it,” he said. “It was such a spiritual thing for me that it just came out of my body. And literally two weeks after, we were having home assessments and talking to adoption agencies.”
Lauren discusses their adoption in her upcoming book, Live in Love: Growing Together Through Life’s Changes. The book will be released on August 18.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sunshine Sachs / Getty Images for CMT / Viacom