Thomas Rhett Opens up About How Daughter Willa Gray Is Doing in Preschool

Thomas Rhett is opening up about how 3-year-old daughter, Willa Gray, is doing in preschool. The proud father, who also has 2-year-old Ada James, and is expecting his third daughter with wife Lauren Akins, reveals his oldest child is thriving in school, and he couldn’t be prouder.

“I think school has been huge for her,” Rhett shared with his record label. “Every day I pick her up and I’m like, ‘What did you learn today?’ And her and her class have memorized Bible verses. How do you memorize a Bible verse at three years old? And she can literally just say it. She can count. She knows the months of the year. It’s just crazy to watch how quickly kids evolve when they’re around other kids, too. From Willa Gray being nine months old to now, almost four, how did she become such a person?

“Both my kids just have the most loud personalities and they act like me and Lauren in some ways, but then they act like other people in ways that we are just like, ‘Where do you get that from?’” he continued. “And it’s been a real trip learning who your kids are and learning who they’re gonna be one day and just trying to soak it all in.”

Rhett and Akins adopted Willa Gray from Uganda in May of 2017, when she was not quite 2 years old. The couple welcomed Ada James only a few months later, and sees no distinction between their daughters.

“The word ‘adopted’ doesn’t even make sense in my head anymore really,” Rhett told PEOPLE. “I know that it happened and I remember it very vividly, but it kind of feels like she has just always been here. Even though Willa Gray comes from [a] whole different part of the world, she’s ours and it feels like she never wasn’t.”

Rhett knows Willa Gray will have questions as she gets older, and he is already hoping he has the right answers.

“I hope God has given me all the right tools to raise Willa Gray to know that no matter where she comes from, she is our child, and that we want her to express her diversity,” Rhett acknowledges. “She’s from Tennessee and she’s from Uganda and I want her to be proud of that.”

Rhett just performed “Remember You Young,” written about Akins, on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Download the song on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Getty/ Tim Mosenfelder