Thomas Rhett and Wife Lauren Akins Share Blissfully Perfect Maternity Photos With Daughter Willa Gray
Country music sweethearts, Thomas Rhett and his wife, Lauren Akins are having one of the best [...]
Lauren, 27, is due to give birth in August, after struggling to fall pregnant. She told PEOPLE this past February, "We tried to get pregnant for a little bit before. It was a good chunk of time and our family is extremely fertile, so I was expecting it to happen easily. I was like, 'Maybe this is the Lord's way of telling me adoption is what He wants me to do.' And I was okay with that."
Paisley writes on her blog that she absolutely loved to photograph the "sweet family," saying they are a truly the "real deal" as their "souls just shine."
"Thomas Rhett is crazy talented," she wrote. "But what stands out to me the most is what's on the inside and you know what, it shows on the outside too."
Paisley goes on to share how "Lauren is truly one of the kindest, sweetest people you will ever meet," writing, "Her beauty is so much deeper than the outside and these two deserve all that life has given them. What a blessed little baby this little one is and I can't wait to meet her.
During Rhett's trip to Tanzania with Lauren, his wife tells PEOPLE she took a pregnancy test and got the good news.
"It's funny to me how we tried so hard and then we didn't try at all and it happened!" Lauren said at the time. "We feel like it's all part of the plan."
Named after Rhett's grandfather, Willard and Lauren's younger brother, Grayson, Willa's name is an inspired one that has deep meaning for the family.
"One day I said the name 'Willa Grace' and one of my friends thought I said something about Will & Grace, the show!" Lauren said. "I love that show but I was like, 'I don't want to think of it every time I think of my daughter.' So we kept it in the family."
When the couple adopted Willa Gray from Uganda in May, Lauren tells PEOPLE that it "felt like a dream."
"I've dreamed of us all being on the same continent for so long. It finally feels like everyone is where they're supposed to be," she said.
The doting parents have adjusted to parenting quickly thanks to Willa, with Rhett taking to Instagram and sharing special moments with his daughter, revealing to PEOPLE that she "never stops moving."
While preparing for their next, Rhett says the couple has been "tag-teaming," between the dogs, cooking and cleaning and as he says, showing Willa more of her new world.
"It's the craziest thing we've ever experienced!" he said.
Photo credit: Julie Paisley Photography