Thomas Rhett Excited to Watch Willa Gray Experience Life in America

Thomas Rhett and his wife, Lauren Akins, adopted their daughter, Willa Gray, from Uganda, only a few months before Akins gave birth to Ada James. Willa, now two years old, is getting to experience a lot of firsts, although her famous father might be more excited about them than she is.

“I’m really excited for her to see fireworks,” says Rhett, speaking of the upcoming July 4 holiday. “Willa is our child and we’re excited to show her our life. We’re excited to take her to the beach. We’re excited for her to see California. We’re excited for her to come see these festivals that we play. And we’re just excited for her to experience this kind of life because we were over in Uganda quite a bit and I wish we could have taken every single one of them home.”

Rhett, who along with Akins supports the charity 147 Million Orphans, is blown away by how his oldest daughter has become accustomed to life in America, after starting out in one of the poorest countries n the world.

“Willa is just one of those kids that literally has adapted so amazing,” Rhett boasts. “You can’t even tell that she ever came from anywhere else.”

Rhett and Akins were well into their adoption journey, and on vacation in Africa with Tyler Hubbard and his wife, Hayley, when Akins found out she was pregnant. Since then, neither Rhett nor Akins’ lives have been the same – changes that he wrote about on his current single, “Life Changes.” But the 28-year-old hints that his next album might be solely about his family.

“I’ve written a couple of songs that just talk about the severe shock of knowing that you’re adopting a child and then you find out that you’re pregnant,” Rhett says. “So I definitely can see myself in the near future just pretty much only writing about my children. It’ll be fun to see; see how they act and see what kind of inspiration I can get from them.”

Rhett’s daughters have impacted every area of his life, and while life might be more chaotic with two daughters, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“They have made me just a better person all around and I would do anything for those two little girls,” Rhett notes. “And it’s been really cool to have ’em on the road with me this year. It just makes the road feel a whole lot more like home and I feel like I can be away a lot more and not be as homesick.”

Rhett is currently serving as the opening act on Kenny Chesney‘s Trip Around the Sun Tour, and will then resume headlining his own Life Changes Tour. Find a list of all of his shows at ThomasRhett.com.

Photo Credit: Instagram/thomasrhettakins