Thomas Rhett Is Melting Hearts With This Sweet Memory of Meeting His Daughter Willa

Thomas Rhett has us feeling all ooey gooey on the inside after sharing a memory of meeting his adopted daughter Willa.

During a recent appearance on an episode of Kevin Bacon’s podcast, Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon, the country musician opened up about the first time he laid eyes on Willa, and what a powerful, life-changing moment it was. Rhett recalled seeing a photo of his wife, Lauren Akins, holding a baby at a Ugandan orphanage. He told Bacon, “I’ve always thought my wife is the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life, but there was something about this picture that she was like, glowing man.”

Rhett continued, “And so was this baby, who I’d never met before, and I remember FaceTiming her that night and saying, ‘Who was that baby that you were holding?’” The “Die a Happy Man” singer explained that Akins shared the baby had no living parents or relatives, so she was at the orphanage for the time being. Rhett recalled his wife telling him, “‘She’s been at this children’s home now and she, her name is Willa Gray but her name was Blessing at the orphanage.’ And she had been there for like a week. She was 6 weeks old,” the dad of four recollected.

“And my wife was just talking to me, like ‘We have to find a home for this child,’” Rhett continued. “And I’ll never forget it dude, it was 2 o’clock in the morning where I was half asleep, and it just kind of blurted out of my mouth: ‘We’re going to bring her home.’” Our hearts just melted into the biggest puddle — what an incredible story for their daughter, to hear her parents loved her so wholly and immediately upon meeting her. Rhett technically hadn’t met her yet, and that’s extremely powerful.

The “On Me” singer added, “And I don’t even remember saying it, I don’t even know if I was ready to have kids yet. I was really loving the road thing, my career was just starting to take off, I was like, ‘Man if we have kids right now, what is that gonna do?’ And I’ll never forget those words coming out of my mouth,” he told Bacon.

Rhett and Akins share three younger daughters in addition to 7-year-old Willa Gray: Ada James, 5, Lennon Love, 3, and Lillie Carolina, who will turn 2 in November.