Country music singer-songwriter Rory Feek isn’t afraid to show off his human side and tell his own very personal story. His brand new book, Once Upon A Farm, gives Joey + Rory fans yet another look inside the artist’s family life.
“When I first started working on the book, I knew it was not only going to be filled with stories about our life and the journey we’ve been on like my first book This Life I Live was, but this one would also include the lessons I’ve learned along the way, and the ones I’m learning still,” Feek confesses via his latest must-read blog entry.
One chapter in his newly released project focuses on his middle daughter, Hopie, and her true identity. Sadly, Rory feels that the contents of this important chapter has kept his second work off of the shelves at most Christian book stores. The same stores that fully embraced his first book.
“In a different chapter of the new book, I share the story of how my oldest daughter Heidi says she’s an atheist and has no interest in organized religion. For some reason, they are fine with that. But the chapter about how my middle daughter Hopie says she’s a Christian, but disagrees with some church doctrine, is somehow unacceptable. That seems so strange to me.
I get it though, this is tough stuff… because they have their beliefs and want to stand by them. And I want to honor that. But honestly, what is it that they would prefer I do? Shun my daughter? Or not share something that we as a family are going through, just because it’s challenging and devisive [sic]?” Rory reflects.
In CHAPTER 3: “A BIGGER LOVE,” Rory shares how Hopie came out to him while at the family’s farmhouse kitchen table just days after Joey’s funeral. She also revealed that she is in love with woman named Wendy.
Though Rory’s first reactions probably weren’t what Hopie had wished for before sharing her most personal truths, her confession has had a profound impact on her father and his thinking. He has since formed a relationship with Wendy and knows that they bring out the best in each other.
“Hopie has made me rethink everything I’ve ever thought when it comes to some things. And in other ways I’m still right where I always was. First off, I’m not the judge. That is not my job. I’m Hopie’s father. My job is to love her. She gets to make her decisions in life. All of them. I can approve or disapprove, but it’s her life, and she has a right to live it as she chooses,” Rory states within this segment of the book.
Hopie and Wendy are now engaged and plan to wed this fall at the Feek family’s Tennessee homestead.
“And so we are going to have a wedding here at the farm. Around Halloween is what I hear. And I’m going to be excited about it. It will be a special day for someone who is special to me and her someone special. That is all I need to know.
I choose to love her. To love them. Period. End of story,” Rory concludes.
We wish Hopie and Wendy the best as they plan their wedding and begin their lives together.
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