Letting God’s Yes Be Enough When You Don’t Understand the Why with Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins (Pt. 1) – Episode 1031

Hi, friends. Welcome to another episode of That Sounds Fun, Spiritually Stronger. I'm your host, Annie F. Downs. I'm so happy to be here with you today for a really special two-part episode. When two of my friends called and said, we want to tell the story of what God did in our lives last year, I knew we had to share it. And as we were talking about prayer this month, I wanted you to hear what perseverance and obedience and prayer looked like in their lives through this story. Sure, the circumstances that they are walking through and have walked through will likely be different from what you and I walked through, but I bet you've had seasons of constantly praying and not understanding what God's doing. Me too. It's why I wanted you to hear this story this week. I couldn't, I didn't know the story before they called me. And when they called and said, we want to share this. I was like, this fits perfectly with us talking about prayer. So today on the show, I get to talk with my friends, Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins. You may know TR from his incredible country music career or Lauren from her beloved Live and Love podcast or the book, but I want you to get to know and hear their deep faith today. Last year, they got to spend six weeks living in Uganda after sensing God, telling them that that's what they were supposed to do. And it wasn't the trip they imagined at all. You're going to hear the entire story along with their journey over the last year of trying to figure out if they should grow their family. Spoiler alert, Lauren is due any minute with their fifth child. And over these two episodes, today and Thursday, you're going to hear the power of prayer, the way God speaks when we make space to listen for His voice, the reminder that we are never alone. And the reality that obedience to God is never promised to be easy. As you'll hear TR say, the believer's life is so much more adventurous than anyone could imagine. Amen to that. So today you get to hear part one of the story, but you are not going to want to miss part two coming your way on Thursday. So here's the first part of this conversation with my friends, Lauren and Thomas Rhett Aikens. Welcome back, TR and Lauren. Let's go. So, okay, we're just having a conversation that none of us have totally planned. Correct. I'm into it. When was the last time we were in here? Oh, 23. Oh, so three years ago. I think it was 23. Nothing's changed. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It's all the same. And nothing changed but my limp. Yeah. Yeah, except you're pregnant again. Our marriage is perfect. Our family's perfect. Yep. End of story. Yeah, there we go. Thanks for joining us, everybody. Yeah. Okay, tell us as we're recording, by the time people hear this, you will have a baby and we will know what it is. I hope so. Yeah, 100%. How far along are you today, Laura? Today, I'm 32 weeks with a six-pound baby. That is. Some of my girlfriends were like, I delivered a six-pound baby at 40 weeks. Wow. What did the doctor say? They said, because the due date is March 2nd, and she said, if you go that long, it will more than likely be 11 pounds. Right? Isn't that what she said? She was like, well, yeah. I mean. If it grows a half pound a week. Statistically, they grow. that much. I've never been more grateful to be a dude. Yeah, yeah. Because you're in this journey, but you're not... I'm in it. I don't think I could physically do it. Yeah. Really? I don't. I do not. I do not. I don't do pain. I'm not a good pain person. But she did. She was like, I wish she would just strap a... Yeah. Would you say strap a... They have those... 11-pound basketball here. I'm going to figure that out. And we're going to do it just for fun. Are you in pain currently? No. like sitting right here I'm not but like when something falls on the floor I'm like yeah that's gonna live there now forever that's there because it's like all my air gets cut off when I bend over and the pressure like the pressure builds the longer I stay down trying to grab something and finally I just get frustrated and give up and either let one of our kids help me out or If I'm alone, it just is going to be there until someone else decides. What's been different in this pregnancy? I'm not sick. Oh, yeah. Hardly at all. It's very different. I'm also carrying a lot different. This is also the first time in my life that I have worked out through a pregnancy. So then my sister-in-law, who is like well-versed in all things pregnant and baby, and she was like, you know, you're stronger. Like your core is stronger. Everything was stronger before you got pregnant. So I think one of the reasons you're carrying so high is because everything is like held together a lot more than it was with the others. And so that explains that. But it is like what is funny is every time I go into a place, especially our post office here, the sweet lady named Phoebe. Every time I walk in, she's like, all right, turn to the side. She's like, yep, it's a boy. Oh, my gosh. I was talking to you about that earlier. What did Mammy say to you? turn around turn around you don't look pregnant from janice yeah they were like if you don't look pregnant from behind usually you know you've got all these different women saying like well this means that and this means that but consistently across the board everybody i know and even strangers are like it is a boy do y'all think it's a boy well i was telling you this and i talked about this on grace's podcast but i need to go back and count i think it's 14 people have had dreams that I'm having a boy. A couple of them were children. Yeah. Oh, a lot of gray was one of the first. Wow. And the other one was one of our really good friends, little girl. She came out of a room and she was like, daddy, miss Lawrence going to have a baby and she's going to have a boy. And he was like, what are you talking about? She was like, I had a dream. Miss Lawrence having a baby and it's going to be a boy. And, um, and then like one of our, one of my brother-in-law's really good friends, his mother, who I'd never met before, had a dream. And I met her that day, having no idea I was going to meet her. She said, I had a dream about you last night. And actually, he's the one who told me first. He was like, my mom, she's here. I don't know you're going to be here. I swear. She's like a sweet lady. then she's really normal but this has rocked her and he's like i have to tell you she has had this dream she had this dream last night and she called me this morning she's like i have to tell you something i think you need to tell lauren and i turned around i looked at him and i'm like i'm seven weeks pregnant and him and his now wife their jaws hit the floor they were like what and so i was like i have to meet your mom so i found her at this event we were at and she like started tearing up as i'm telling her i'm like i'm seven weeks pregnant and nobody knows wow and so it's a lot of those it's a lot i mean i have a list and it's all about boys it's all like i saw you and you had a boy and and that's never happened to me before yeah yeah and i think a lot of people think that we're lying that we don't know what we're having we genuinely don't know i believe you like even yesterday at the hospital she's like all right y'all look away oh yeah they're doing the ultrasound yeah it kills me yeah do you want to know i wanted i wanted to know the whole time but now i'm we're this far in i'm committed to yeah i'm committed i mean you've You've got days, maybe. You're going to have to wait very long. We might walk out of here and go straight to the hospital. Before you run out of the milk in your fridge, you're going to know what that baby is. Yeah, for sure. TRL, is this pregnancy different for you? Like, is this one different as the dad in the story? I think it feels like it's just been so long since we were pregnant. Yeah. You know what I mean? This has been the longest. It's been the longest for sure. I think the biggest difference for me is that our kids now, 10, 8, 6, and 4, are so invested into school and friends and sports. And so it's like I don't want this to come out wrong, what I'm about to say, because I cannot wait to meet this child. But it's almost like there's so much happening that I'm like I feel like I'm committing to so many other things than honestly just like sitting down and being like, what's going to happen when we have this child? It's sneaking up on me so fast. Yeah. You know what I mean? And then, you know, my overthinking brain, I'm just I'll just sit there and just spiral and plan. I'm just like, how the frig are we going to do this? Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? How do we start over? People keep saying, well, you already got a lot of chaos. And I'm like, yeah, that's true. But like this is going to take it from one hundred and ten percent to six thousand percent chaos. Right. I just don't think we don't really do life slowly. Yeah. You know? And I think people at this point are like, of course. Why not? Right. Throw a fifth one in there. Get you a puppy. Go ahead and get a puppy. Get a German Shepherd, too. Two puppies. And that was all my fault. I have never cried. I've been very fortunate in my life. I have not lost many people in my life. I still have both sets of grandparents. Yeah. But when we lost our lab cache, I mean, I was like hunched over, wailing in the yard. And I was like, we're getting another one today. I'm that guy. I'm like, let's just get some rebound dogs. You know what I'm saying? And they're great. But I sit there. We already had one. We already had one. We did. We did. We got Nero in September. I was like, we do have. And he was like, nope. We're getting another lab. And I kind of forgot how much terror slab puppies are. He's cute as he can be, but he is a mess. But anyway, I think sometimes I just stand in my kitchen, and I'm kind of going deaf in this ear a little bit. And so I had to go get hearing aids as a 35-year-old man. Oh, wow. And I wore them for like a week. And I looked at her, and I was like, is this legit what you hear all day long? Because I can't think straight. It's so loud. I was like, babe, welcome to our— I'm sitting there just messing with the functions on my phone. And I'm like, noise cancel. And it's like when I take them out, I'm like, okay, this is normal again. Wow. But I'm just like, I just stand there and I'm like, this is insanity. This is insanity. And we do not have a nanny. We do not have an assistant. We have nothing. We don't have a consistent babysitter. We don't have a consistent babysitter. And so since I've been off the road, there's part of me that's just like, when are we going back? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, can we just book some dates in March? I don't care where they are. We'll go. I got to get out of the way to come sing. I will come sing at your kid's birthday at this point, as long as it's a three-day birthday. You know what I'm saying? As long as it's a big, long celebration. I think I've just never – I have never been home this consistent, maybe in my entire career. Oh, wow. Oh, COVID. I hated COVID. I know. She loved it. Not the sick part, but, like, the forcing of everyone to be there. Having to be together. She loved it, and I was just, like, freaking out. Yeah. But I think the biggest change for me is just like, I don't want to discount the fact that it's a huge miracle and it's a gift. But also, to be completely honest, I haven't thought about it a lot because there's so much happening. Yes. And y'all just went to Uganda. Correct. And so back me up a little bit. Tell me the miracle story of this baby. What rated is this podcast? Whatever you want it to be. I mean, probably don't say the F word. No, I don't say the F word. I think I've said the F word three times in my life. I haven't told many people because it's strange. It's a strange story. But it's real. I'm trying to figure out where to start. I'll back up to about a year and a half ago and I'll tell the thousand foot view story. It was two years ago. In church? Yeah. Okay. Two years ago in church. Our pastor was saying something. We were in one of those times of prayer and repentance, and he kind of gave a list of guided questions to ask the Lord. And so I'm sitting there, and my eyes are closed, about to take communion. And I literally – I don't think I've ever had a vision in my life. I actually don't know what it would look like to have one, to be honest with you. I've definitely had dreams before that I felt like some meant more than other dreams or whatever. But I was closing my eyes and I saw our family in Uganda. And it wasn't really in a house. I just knew that the six of us were in Uganda. And I just thought that was so odd. And I was just like, well, is that a past memory? And I'm like, no, because our kids have never been there before. Willow Gray obviously had been there because we adopted her from there. But I just saw the six of us standing like on this road. And I know the road. and it was a road that we were on the first time we took our kids to Uganda. Anyway, and so I remember... After you had this dream. Yeah, and then I remember getting in the car thinking about, should I say, should I tell my wife this? Because when you tell Lauren anything, she's going to pressure you to keep praying about it. And I'm just like, I'm good. You know what I mean? I love our comforts. You know what I mean? And that sounds so bad. Nope, I'm with you. But so about a week later, I was like, hey, so I had this vision in church. It probably doesn't mean anything. And she was like, well, let's start praying about that. And I need help with the timeline here. But we started praying about it. And we kind of felt like that we should take our kids to Uganda. We didn't know how long, whatever. What did that look like when you were praying about it? Would you just journal God open the right doors, show us the timeline? Exactly. We prayed like very clear open doors, very clear closed doors. Opportunities would come up and we would pray about it. Be like, is this what you're asking us to do? Because we really had no direction other than he knew it was for a season Yeah He was like I feel like it was us living there yeah and when that came out of his mouth i looked at him like then i was like can i just reverse right to be honest there were moments where we would like it was tough it was like it would turn into a stressful argument for him and i because i would be like but if the lord's calling us to do And he's like, but what if I didn't see it the right way? Which I feel like totally. That's what you do when you're scared. That's right. I think. Well, for sure. There was a lot of fear around it. We have a lot of kids and he tours for a living. Yeah. And so he's like, how do we even do that? Like, I have tour and our kids are in real school. It's not like we can just do whatever we want. And so I was like, but what if, like, but what is he calling us to that we don't want to miss out on? Because I know even through Willow Gray's adoption and all the mountains and valleys we've been through in life, you don't want to miss what he's calling you to. Almost always it's hard, at least in our life. but every not almost always every single time we have done what we feel like he's called us to we have gone thank god like you gave us the strength to like just continue to walk that path even though it felt scary or looked dark or looked unwise especially in a lot of people's lives close to us they're like this isn't very smart you know you've got a bunch of kids you have a life you have a career why would you take your kids over there for a long period of time and then loved one we did our ribbon cutting and our whole board went over to uganda and i'll never forget a few months had passed and we were talking about i said so where do you have you felt anything lately about going back and it's like no no but you missed you missed the put we did we did take our kids last summer no no that's what i'm saying you were like but we went and i was like yeah but that's not tom straight like kick we get on that plane and i genuinely do love being there please don't hear me say that i don't love going to uganda i i love my ugandan friends i love what i love love one i love all the things that they're happening but like 10 days i'm like nailed it i'm like hey you saw that we you saw that we did that oh you know what i'm saying yeah he's i'm sure you If God laughs, it sounds like thunder. I don't know. But we got home from that, and it was awesome. Like getting to see Willa Gray holding hands with, like, who are now probably 18, 19, 20 years old in their 20s. But they were with Willa Gray when she was six months old at the children's home that she was at. Oh, and they all met her before I even met her. Yeah. And then watching her become buddies with them. Like, it was one of the most special. Like sisters and brothers. So we call them. They're your sisters and brothers that you have over here that we get to see as often as we come over. And she truly feels like they're part of her family. And just for timeline purposes, this was last summer. Summer of 24. Summer of 24. Summer of 24. We went over there for two weeks. Got it. Uganda was a shorter stint. We have some friends who live in Kenya. We did some Kenya activities. So we get home, and I'm like on cloud nine. I'm like, we did it. Like we're like back. Yeah. Obey. Normal schedule. Engage, you know. Engage. And then, you know, I guess I guess it would have been maybe a month or two goes by. And I remember and I'm going to botch that I have a terrible memory. We have a really good. I have a sort of. But anyway, Lauren was like a couple months later, she was like. Do you still feel like we didn't. You know, I can feel what's coming out of her. And I just want to run for the hills. I'm like, yeah, oh, yeah, we we God told me that we did what we were supposed to do. You know, like a little white laugh there. But no, I could check the box. Yeah, I could feel it. I could. And I felt it, too, honestly, like, you knew as soon as she started saying, I knew it. And I was like, OK, we're going to start praying about this again. And and and so, you know, fast forward to around January of this past year, 2025. Lauren went over there on a on a board trip, February on a board trip. And met a little girl. Actually, similar stories to Willow Gray. Wow. I think one thing I've learned about being in Uganda is that there is a difference between, and I don't know if we want to include this in the podcast, but there's a difference between a true orphan and an orphan that might have some family. Like a Zsa Zsa or an auntie or whatever. They will call them like if this was a total orphan. Like somebody who has no one who has come forward and said, we know this child. We'll take care of this child. And a lot of the kids that we see, even in children's homes, has someone. Like a cousin. Like someone that will take them in and be the sole guardian. But there are some children who don't have that. Yes. Yes. And this in particular child did not. Yeah. As far as our knowledge. There are a few. We didn't have time to. And those are the ones that are adoptable need to be adopted. Need to be adopted. Correct. They just need a forever home. They need a forever family. And this little girl. Yeah. And so we. Was one of those. It is one of those. Yeah. So we started praying heavily into that. And then that. Oh, so you came home and were like. I met her in February. I went over with my parents, actually. Yeah. and we met her um and so we started praying also kind of side tangent we have four healthy amazing girls and i think for the longest time we kind of thought maybe we're done having kids i think always i had just like a little bit of i i would pray about it a lot like lord take this desire from me if this is not what you have for our family but the desire to stop having children has not gone away but it felt weird because our life is so fast-paced and we've got four kids and they're great and we're rolling and it's been a minute since we've had a baby in the house to go backwards feels kind of crazy but I just couldn't shake it and he wasn't totally on that same page he's like I'm good like I'm good with the four that we've got and I remember I asked him, I said, could we just try for a few months until my birthday or until Christmas or whatever it was? This was about a year ago. And 2023, fall of 2023. And he said, yeah, sure. Why not? Let's just try and see what happens. I'm like, well, I'm probably going to get pregnant. And so in the back of my mind, I'm going, I'm totally getting pregnant. We get all the way to Christmas. I'm still not pregnant. And we're standing in our closet and he said, you seem sad. And I started crying and looked at him. It was just like, I think I thought I was like giving it up to the Lord. And like, if he doesn't give us a baby by Christmas, like that's my answer. I'm going to be at peace with it. I'm okay with accepting that answer. and when December rolled around I was really sad and I just told him I was like I'm just really sad I think I didn't realize how much I really did want at least one more baby and I'll never forget he looked at me and he was like I mean there's no harm in can do it he's like I'm happy to keep on trying for this baby and I was like really he goes yeah I mean yeah it sounds a little crazy having five kids and i think a lot of people are going to say what are you thinking you don't have consistent help and i travel all the time and you've got four healthy girls why would you why would you make it more chaotic but he was like a lot of time god's plans are not the ones that are the normal ones and he was like and if this is what you feel he's like i'll he's like i will do this with you like let's let's do this and so then it's like happy tears and i'm like oh my goodness and so we keep trying and that's when it rolled into that february yeah i met this little girl And then you met a little girl. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's her. Like, I think, and then it lined up with his vision. I'm like, we have to live over here for a year to foster, to adopt. And so then we were like, started praying about this little girl. And we were like, Lord, are we supposed to go? Are we supposed to go? And it was a very consistent, yes, you're supposed to go. Wow. And so that's when Thomas Drett came back to his management. And we're meeting with our school and we're talking with our family. and we're like, hey, we're going to pursue this little girl. And so this is like last summer. Yeah. And Virginia's listening to this. It's quite traumatic for her. But yeah. So Thomas Dratt. Virginia's my manager. Yeah. Yeah. And she's also like a very, very close family friend. And she, Thomas Dratt went and they scheduled out for us to be gone. For a year. Hey, friends, just interrupting this conversation and tell you about one of our incredible partners, ELIC. 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Like, do you think that, do you think there's like at least 10 shows that I can come back to America to play at least just to keep the wheels on the bus. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I'm kind of panicking, freaking out, being like, how the crap are we going to live over there? Hey I got to go home for a week because I got to do a show in Louisiana and then I come straight back And I kind of having PTSD from 2016 when we were adopting Willow Gray because I had some success at that point but it was not enough success that I could just take the year off Yes. You know what I'm saying? Yes. And so I remember going back and forth a ton during Willow Gray's adoption. And so this time I'm kind of going, OK, well, if I can go home in March for three weeks and then come back in July and come back in September, I can keep, you know, band paid, crew paid and people happy. You know what I'm saying? That was my plan. Yeah. And so we had decided that we were going to go find, you know, a couple fairs or festivals to play and hopefully a couple, you know, private gigs showed up along the way or something. Um, and, but we were, we were doing it like this was happening, you know, like everybody had been talked to like booking agents were in knowing and all the stuff. So we committed to doing this. And, uh, I guess it would have been, this is now to finally answer the question you asked 20 minutes ago. Um, but I guess it would have been May ish, April, May, April or May of last year. it kind of started to fall apart a little bit. Yeah. Nothing crazy happened, but I like, I would have people say, do you feel like, you know, with Willa Gray, when you held her, you had that instant, like you just fell in love with her. And I was like, well, no, but I really haven't been able to hold her. So I feel like if I can just get back over there, I'm going to feel like, you know, it's, it's going to feel just like Willa Gray. And I'm like talking myself up and I'm like really wanting this to happen. And you're not pregnant at this point. No, I'm not pregnant. And I would pray about it. I would be like, OK, we both would be confused because it was like the Lord would confirm you are supposed to go. But then I would have this check in my spirit of like deep down. I would go. But is it her? And I met. But then I'm like, but she she needs a family. I'm desiring more children. Why would it not? be her right but it just I couldn't ever like I felt so confident in hearing his voice you're supposed to go and I just thought I just need to get there for it to feel right to bring her home as well and in the midst of all this I'm sharing honestly with um one of our friends who lives in Uganda. And one of the comments she made was if y'all did not pursue her, we would have, or we would like to. Oh, and I remember the first time she said it, it was like the Lord just kind of like whispered in my heart, she's not yours. Wow. And then I got really sad. um but it was it i was very clear but then i was confused because then i'm like but i had this desire we tried to get pregnant we weren't getting pregnant i met this little girl it feels like it should work yes why is it not working and you know it was a little bit of relief of like well we don't have to pick up and move to Africa for a year like that is really really tough adoption is really really tough so is pregnancy and delivering a baby but I it was just I was so I was very very very sad yeah and um and so then I'm praying um you know we're both just like Lord we're confused so we feel like we heard you we feel like you're telling us to go now we have no reason to go y'all are modeling such a good thing of like don't add to what god said like you're praying and you heard him say go yeah and so you went well the go makes sense the go doesn't make sense but i hear the go we don't hear the go on adoption so what so it's almost like y'all took what you heard and went back and said that doesn't register with my brain right keep talking or anyone's brain around and so then we had to have really honest conversations of like do you feel like he's still telling us to go i do do you still feel like he's telling yes we do collectively as a marriage we feel like he's telling us to go now it's at this point it's a win a win for how long and are you still thinking a year at this point yeah are you like we're going for a year that's what it felt like yeah so we were like should we just stick with the plan do we just take our kids out after school is over we move over in the summer so that was our plan and um so we go on through May. This is in May now. Kids are out of school. Yeah. And I will tell this part for the 10 to 13 year olds that potentially listen to this podcast. So we're laying in bed one night and we are We had been actively preventing Correct. Because of this potential adoption. Yes. Got it. So we were very diligent. Yeah, right. And so anyway, we're laying in the bed one night and we're both about to fall asleep. Like she's already snoring. I'm like 30 seconds. And I'm like, you know, lay on my right arm, stay asleep. I'm like drifting off. And I can't fully describe it. Like my guy friends I've told this to are like, oh, yeah, for sure. You're totally trying. You're totally trying that. Anyway, I felt this. It wasn't a voice. It was just like a feeling that I had. And it wasn't, there's no right way to say it. You heard it. You didn't hear a voice audibly, but you heard. Yeah. Just felt something like, hey, now is the time. Wow. Basically. That's amazing. In the most PG version that I can say. It basically said, I was told to wake you up and it's go time. Yeah. And I'm half asleep going, what in the world? And so you obeyed. We obeyed. Yeah. That's where my guy friends are like, I'm going to say that to my wife anyway. God told me. God told me. That's amazing, TR. The next morning. I woke up the next morning and I said, you are pregnant. 100%. And I'm kind of panicking because I'm like, oh my word. We did not. There was zero prevention because it was one of those like, I'm half asleep. It was a very kind of the next morning you go, uh-oh. Yeah. But the timing, and this is for everyone who understands women's schedules and that kind of thing, there is no way that I should have been pregnant. So I was very confident. I'm like, no, no, no, no. I'm on day seven. Yeah. Six. Which typically you're around day 14-ish. Uh-huh. Yeah, you're really off on the flow chart. It would say not happening. Flow chart says not happening. I don't know what the flow chart is. You don't need to. But I was like, I think it's okay. I think it's going to be fine. And Thomas was like, no, I'm pretty confident because I'm also confident that the Lord told me to. And you're having a baby. And I was like, not a chance. Yeah. So that was like, yeah, that would have been May. And I remember we talked about it on the phone a couple times. I'm like, I genuinely think that you are. And I get home. Yeah. June 15th on Father's Day. And I remember coming down the stairs. This is June 15th of this year. A week before Father's Day. And I was doing laundry. And I was running down the stairs. And when I was running down the stairs, there are parts of your body that start to feel things a lot faster. And it's like, you're like, oh, you feel like sore in your chest. Yeah. And I remember walking down, running down the stairs being like, ow. And then something else happened. And I, oh, I took the kids to New York. That's right. Yeah. I took the kids to New York to celebrate your dad. And I remember being in the bed. There were just a few things that I was like, this is different. And I remember laying in bed with our girls. He had already gone somewhere else. So it was just me and the four girls in New York City. and we went to watch a movie in our beds that night and I fell asleep before all the kids did and I was like wow I just must be really exhausted from being in New York with the girls and it was that weekend that was Father's Day and I woke up Father's Day morning and I was like I'm still in New York or back in Nashville he had come home either that day or the day before and I took it because I'd taken a test the night before the day before negative and then I took three and it was the faintest line and all three of them I was like oh my goodness we're pregnant yeah and and he called me from the road and said I know you're having a baby and I was like I wish you would drop this I don't I really just don't think that's what's happening um and And so that was his Father's Day gift was Happy Father's Day. Three positive pregnancy tests. Father times five, at least. Yeah. And so. It's just one baby. We have confirmed that. Yeah. And then not to like continue to skip, but I just, it was at that moment where you kind of go, okay, now we're for sure not supposed to go to Africa. Right. You know what I mean? Like I kind of felt like that was, that was God saying, this is what I have been planning the whole time. Yeah. Thank you for saying yes for so long. Yes. Not that that was like a gift of obedience or whatever it was, but I felt like I just felt like, OK, that's our. This was the journey. That's the journey. Yeah. And it was exhausting. And I'm glad we are at this phase now. Yes. But then it just kept happening. It was just like, do you still think we're supposed to go? Yes. Do you still think we're supposed to go? Yes. Well, why? For how long? When? I'm on tour the rest of the summer. All that kind of stuff. And now you're pregnant. And now we're pregnant. And usually you're really sick. Yes. Correct. Like really, really sick. Yeah. Yeah. So then one thing leads to another. And, you know, again, just on the phone with all of the all of my people, my team should be like, OK, well, I think we are still going to go. We're saying this to our family. So the plan was to go after he got off tour, which is October. Correct. I was going to maybe go over in the summertime, get some things ready with the kids, come back. We were all going to go as a family in October. and then yeah we were like okay so we're actually still going to go in october yeah but that but then i felt like the lord gave us now we had a timeline does that make sense so it's like you can go after tour's over and then you're going to come back right before your third right before your third trimester yeah brilliant so that ended up being a roughly a six-week uh span hey friends just interrupted this conversation one more time to tell you about another incredible partner our place whether you're cooking for one or cooking for 10 you're going to love the cookware from our place not only are they the best non-stick pans seriously your scrambled eggs will slide right off but they're completely free from toxins so many pots and pans and appliances out there are still made with forever chemicals, which none of us want in our food, but Our Place has saved the day. Their cookware is also so cute. 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So in all this, now you're like, okay, this was God's story all along. Seven weeks. And we don't know why. Correct. Yeah. Wild. And I was frustrated at this point. Yeah. You know what I mean? With God? Or just with the story? I'm just like, what are we doing? Yeah. Like, I know that you know. Yeah. But like, I don't. Yeah. And I need to know. You know what I mean? And there's just never really a clear why. It's just, are you going to hear my yes and let that be enough? Wow. I heard a pastor say at one time, what do you say, that sometimes the Lord will give you just enough information to go. To take the next step. To take the next step, but not all the information so that you lose faith. Don't you wish you would, though? Just lay the whole thing out. Dude, 100%. Yeah. 100%. I'm like, if I was running this show, I'd be telling you a lot more. Yeah, that's right. That's enough clarity. Yeah, that's right. That's where I keep going back to just the mystery of the kingdom of God. There's things that we just don't have to understand. That's okay. That's right. So anyway, now we're basically not on Zillow, but the Ugandan version of whatever, looking for a place to stay. And we couldn't have lived in a hotel room. Right. We couldn't have all fit in the same hotel room. And so where Love One is in this little town, there was like an apartment complex that basically shared a property line to the Love One Center. Yeah. Wow. So we were in this little apartment, this little two-bedroom apartment. All the girls in one room. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All four of them, yeah. Wow. That's sweet. We had a little kitchen. Had a little kitchen. Yeah. And so basically, so we get there and— Well, back up to when we were supposed to leave. Oh, right. The day we were supposed to leave. Yeah. So the day we're supposed to leave, it was supposed to be October the 15th of 2024. And we had that. 24 or 25? 25. 2025. Yeah. Yeah. And so the vet comes over to our house. She's great, by the way, if anybody's looking for a vet. Cash was our silver lab, and he was like my shadow. Yeah. And I felt like I could look at him, and he could look at me, and we could each know what each other is thinking. he was like my little buddy from the day that he came home 12 years ago and I knew I told Thomas Stratt we had been spent a weekend at our farm with people and he just started acting weird and I said something is yeah not Tom Stratt the cash started doing some weird things I was like something's something's off with him Tom Stratt was like what do you think it is and I was like I don't know. And over the next couple of days, it just kind of got worse. It got worse. And I was like, no, something is really wrong. And at this point we're supposed to leave in like three days. Oh my gosh. And so then I started feeling like, oh my gosh, almost every time we go to Uganda, something happens. Spiritual warfare just kicks up. And I was like, okay, he's probably going to have to have be on some antibiotic or he's probably whoever, you know, whoever's house sitting dog sitting because this is the dog that could not die legit yeah like he did everything a dog is not supposed to do his entire life ate whole bags of chocolate chips cashews all the things that the vet say avoid these he would do it in excess and he just was like he's fine i'm here you know so i kind of thought i just never thought cash was gonna die And so we had our vet come over and I'll never forget. I looked at her and I said, I think I know that this isn't good. And after she assessed him, she looked at me and I looked at Thomas Rhett. And I don't think that he knew, but in my spirit, I think I've talked about this before. There are a few times in my life where like in my spirit, the Lord will like tell me things right before it happens. Just to kind of be like, this is going to happen and it's going to be OK. But this is going to be really hard and this is going to happen. And it was that was one of those moments I knew that we were going to have to put him down and knew that he was very sick. I knew that he was sick, which is why I called her to come over. but when she looked at me it was like the spirit was like hey it's his time to go home and it's going to be okay and I remember our kids running around the house and I was like we need to go outside we need to go outside right now because I was starting to feel all the things that you feel when you when you know your animals and some people are like we don't have that relationship with our animals and that's fine but he was my little buddy huge my 120 pound buddy yeah um and we were about to go but the funny thing is not funny actually not funny but the way that the lord works i love i love his details i love his details so much because he's so in details and i'm a very detail oriented person his details are beyond anything my brain can even comprehend That's right. And the fact that this is also going to sound ridiculous, or I'm just going to say it. One of my number one fears leaving for seven or eight weeks, what it was supposed to be initially. Is was leaving cash for that long, because we did it one time when he toured in Europe and it was about a 40 day stint. and he just cash is one of those dogs that did not do well without me yeah like severe separation anxiety i felt like he was a little depressed and you can be like oh my god america first world problems with dogs that get attached to humans but it was true it would he he would be sad and i even wrote a note one of our best friends stayed at our house with our dogs supposed to while we were gone and one of the notes i wrote to him so he saw every morning was love extra on cash man today he gets really sad if i'm not here and that was one of my greatest fears was leaving him for that long like what is he gonna think he's older now yeah is he gonna make it um and so the fact that a it came on so abruptly he lived such a full and fast life it was quick there was the suffering was intense at the very end but it was so quick like it went from he was okay to i'm not okay he was not okay and so it felt like when i was over there i didn't realize it till we were in africa but i was like oh my goodness this is such a small detail but i'm able to be so much more free over here because I am not worrying about cash at all. I'm sad, but of course I would not have chosen for him to like go to heaven before we left. But also it was just one of those details that the Lord knew a, it's going to be his time. B, it's going to take a massive way off of you. So you can be more present with your family in Africa. And for whatever reasons, I truly believe that was one detail that the Lord had for me to free me up to be with my family in Uganda. And that sounds like a morbid, the way that it turned out. But to me, that's like, that's just even in the hard details, the Lord is in the timing of your details. Even if you don't see it right away, no matter how hard it is. And that to me, that was one. It did postpone our trip a bit because we had to stay yeah yeah and then we had to find a new flight and you know and then another another just wild thousand foot view detail i had to i had to play i was on i was on tour the entire summer but we had a show weather had hit us weird the entire year like i felt so bad for our openers i mean yeah tucker wetmore i mean he there was like seven nights where his set was like eight minutes long because of lightning and so we just got hit every single weekend um and then finally we were in Birmingham one night and there was like a little tiny storm cell and it just sat over the amphitheater until three o'clock in the morning. It was the only show I had to cancel all year. And then we rescheduled it for... This weekend. The weekend we were supposed to get ready to leave to go to Africa. Yeah. And so I look back at that and I go, if that show had not been rained out, I would not have extended my tour a week. And more than likely we would have already left for Uganda and Cash would have died while we were there. And so I'm sure there were a million reasons that God had for that lightning and the thousands of people that were going to show up, maybe something crazy happened. In the moment, it was disappointment. It was like, this is going to push us another week. And we were like, no. There were a lot of things that were like, this is inconvenient. This is disappointing. This is not what we had. This is ruining our timeline. And in the moment, it feels like that. And then you look back and you're like, oh, my gosh. but the details of him just taking care of our hearts yes it doesn't matter to anybody else but to our hearts it matters well you know and that to me is so sweet for him to be in the details that no one else will care and how tragic if cash would have died when you were over there well i can't imagine what you would have held of is it because i left is it right yeah and then yeah so after that happened like i liked our dogs you know they did i didn't wake up thinking i cannot wait to like hug on my dogs yeah i was just like hey buddy you know like that kind of relationship but the moment that she told me that he was going down like i just sat there with him and wept like a nine-year-old kid yeah and then we had to do the entire night and we were going to put him down the next morning and when he took his last breath like i was not okay not okay and i was like we're i don't want to go anymore that's where it got for me yeah like i literally voiced it a bunch i was like we don't need to go anymore there's no way i'm about to get on a flight and be this is all i'm gonna think about the entire time over there he was like are our kids gonna be okay because they're beside themselves and he's like we're gonna take a bunch of sad kids across the world for like honey we're gonna be sad there we're gonna be sad here either way but then we still had our other dog kona yeah um so back to so we anyway that happens which was just a huge just dagger right before you go somewhere where you really don't even know what you're going for yes okay you guys how are you feeling after part one i need to know how you are feeling listen this is only half of the story don't forget the second half comes on thursday but man their honesty their kindness it's all just their trust in god their faith it's it's amazing. So head over to social media, tell them thank you so much for coming on That Sounds Fun to tell this exclusive story. We cannot wait for you to hear the rest on Thursday. And I'm telling some of my story of perseverance and obedience and prayer and how that's gone well and not gone well over my life. I'm processing that with you over at spirituallystronger.com. So meet us there, get involved there. The comment section's incredible. We offer you tons of additional resources and questions for you to journal through every day. Remember, our hope is that you do an hour a week with us here as the podcast leads you into a conversation, then 10 additional minutes a day with God, really processing through what you heard on spirituallystronger.com. If you have any questions from this episode, you can drop them in the Q&A box in your Spotify app. If you're a Spotify listener like me, send them to us on Instagram at That Sounds Fun Podcast. We'll try to answer them there. or of course, drop them in the comments at spirituallystronger.com. If you need anything else from me, I am like embarrassingly easy to find. Any Fdowns on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, Substack, anywhere you need me, that's where you can find me. I think that's it for me today. Friends, go out or stay home. Do something that sounds fun to you and I will do the same. Today, what sounds fun to me, I got a counseling appointment this afternoon and it is always fun to process. Listen, I got words and feelings for days, so I'm glad to see my counselor today. Y'all have a great week. Don't forget, we'll see you back here on Thursday as we continue this exclusive story on Thomas Rhett and Lauren's trip to Africa. Part two coming for you on Thursday. God is begging me Spirit is stronger Spirit is stronger Spirit is stronger Spirit is stronger Thank you.