Rory Feek has begun the painful journey of being a single father following Joey Feek’s death. Recently, this journey includes watching their two-year-old daughter, Indiana Feek, begin her own journey with preschool, where she’s learning how to walk and speak. This Life I Live is a blog created by Rory about two years ago with Joey’s encouragement. The couple shared a look into their lives with Indiana, who was born with Downs’ Syndrome in February 2014.
Joey’s cervical cancer diagnosis in late 2014 didn’t stop Rory from writing about what was going on in their lives. As Joey began treatment at the Cancer Treatment Center’s Atlanta location, Rory shared more and more.
Then came the day that Rory and Joey had feared, the cancer was back and had spread. The couple made the decision to end treatment and returned home, as Rory says, to live, not to die.
After Joey’s passing on March 2, 2016, fans thought Rory may discontinue the blog. But Rory has vowed to carry on the journey because that’s what Joey would have wanted.
In the latest entry, Rory shares photos of two-year-old Indiana’s first days at preschool. Rory explains that Joey “had every intention of home-schooling Indy as she grew up.” When Rory and Joey painfully realized this wasn’t going to be an option, they began researching school’s that could accommodate Indiana’s special needs.
Joey and Rory found a developmental center about 25 minutes north of their Franklin, Tennessee farm called High Hopes. Rory explains that half the High Hopes campus is a preschool and the other half is a state-of-the-art therapy center for children with special needs.
Joey Feek and Rory Feek watched a video of the center together this past January. Rory tells that tears welled up in Joey’s eyes and “with a beautiful smile said, ‘that’s the one honey…that’s the one.’”
And that’s where Indiana Feek goes two days each week, and according to Rory, the little girl is enjoying every moment. In the blog post titled “High Hopes,” Rory shared photos of Indiana playing with toys, making friends, learning lots of new things, and taking a nap.
While playing with some toys, Indiana found a blond-haired Lego man wearing overalls, picked it up, and declared, “Papa!” Rory’s blond and overalls are his signature outfit. Little Indiana was spot on!
Indiana Feek has begun physical therapy classes in order to learn to walk. She also attends speech therapy classes so she can learn to communicate verbally with her speech. Rory cannot wait for the day when he and Indiana can walk around their farm together and visit Joey at the family cemetery.
Rory Feek ends the blog post by writing, “I believe that God gives us just what we need, when we need it. Sometimes it’s not what we had planned or what we thought we wanted, but if we keep an open mind… it just might even be better than what we originally hoped for.”
Life after Joey Feek mimics one of Joey + Rory’s most famous songs, “When I’m Gone.” The very last line, “And even though you live me still, you will know where you belong. Just give it time, we’ll both be fine, when I’m gone” seems to be how Rory has chosen to honor his bride’s memory.
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Image credit to This Life I Live // Rory Feek
