As the world goes through a very difficult period, Rory Feek is trying not to let things like coronavirus or racial tensions get to him. There is just too much beauty in his little corner of the world.

“I just was out riding the John Deere tractor in the back field by the schoolhouse and was watching (daughter) Indy and a few of her classmates playing in the sprinkler while their teacher watched,” Feek tells Taste of Country in a recent interview. "There is just so much life and joy happening right here at the farm at a time...”

His voice begins to trail off, and he pauses for a moment. When he continues, his voice seems to quiver with every syllable.

“If I had lost Joey and Indy wasn’t here, I think I would have had a harder time than I do,” he says, referring to the death of his wife and Joey + Rory bandmate, Joey Feek, in 2016 after battling cancer. “God knew that I needed someone who needed me at this very time. He knew that I was going to wake up alone and He knew that I didn’t have to be alone.”

In the foreword of his new book The Day God Made You, Feek dedicates the book to his daughter, further recognizing the gift that she is to not only him, but the gift she was to his late wife.

“Joey needed Indy,” says Feek, who released his first children's book, The Cow Said Neigh! A Farm Story, in 2018.  “Her whole life, Joey thought that she wasn’t going to be a mother. She didn’t think she was motherly. She didn’t think it was something that was missing from her life. She needed Indy because the thing that she was the most afraid of was having a baby.”

But then she gave birth to Indiana in 2014, and everything changed.

“It was like a switch that had flipped,” Feek remembers of the birth of Indiana, who has Down Syndrome. “She realized it was the greatest thing. The birth was the greatest experience. Holding the baby in her arms was the greatest experience. She realized that she had almost missed out on the greatest treasure of living for her. Of course, I wish she had lots and lots of years with Indiana instead of only two. But I try to focus on the fact that she got two years that she didn’t plan on. I know she was thankful for that.”

And so is he.

“In spite of all the tough things that have happened, I wake up and pinch myself because I’m so lucky and Indy is a big part of that.”

See Joey + Rory's Sweetest Pictures

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