Rory Feek of the music duo Joey+Rory recently shared a touching new blog post in which he reflected on his love for his wife, Joey Feek, and the strength she has shown since being placed in hospice care after a terminal cancer diagnosis in June.
In the heartfelt letter posted on his website This Life I Live on Thursday, Rory, 50, first reminisced about the ups and downs he and his wife experienced since forming their country act on CMT's singing competition Can You Duet in 2008.
"When we found out we had made it through the first round of auditions, they asked us what our stage name was going to be," Rory recalled. "I told Joey that I think we should tell them 'Joey+Rory', because that's what it actually was ... You + Me = whatever this is going to be."
He continued, "Without knowing it, what we were actually adding into the equation that day in 2008... was God. It was faith that we added - a willingness to trust Him and be OK with whatever He had in store. I think that's where the power is. There's nothing magical about Joey and I together. We bring our skills and talents into this union, but God brings the magic."
As reported by The Gospel Herald, the couple and their children -- Indiana, 22 months, and Rory's adult children from a previous relationship, Heidi and Hopie -- relocated from their farmhouse in Pottsville, Tennessee, to Joey's childhood home in Alexandria, Indiana in October as her health continued to deteriorate.
"Now all these years later, as I sit here with my laptop at the dining room table and my beautiful wife sleeping peacefully in the next room, I find myself looking back at that moment," Rory continued.
He explained that he's thankful for "all the extra days and weeks that we've been given together" after Joey's "doctors here didn't expect Joey to make it to Thanksgiving."
However, the loving husband said he can't help but grieve the reality facing him and his family as Joey nears the end of her battle with cervical cancer.
"I cannot even begin to imagine going home to Tennessee without Joey, or living my life and raising Indy without her, but I know that day is coming," he shared.
Joey and Rory have "hard questions" about life and death facing them - "and we don't have any answers for them," Rory wrote.
"But still, we have faith - we choose to believe. I think that's why they call it faith," he concluded. "If we knew all the answers, no faith would be required. And so Joey and I do our best each day to only see the plus's in our life."
In an earlier blog post, Rory revealed that his wife of 13 years is having "serious talks with Jesus" as she prepares to face eternity.
"I'd like to tell you that she's doing great and is going to beat this thing. But I can't," penned Rory, as he explained Joey's pain and discomfort had increased daily and the morphine dosage needed to help her comfort has had to be quadrupled.
"Yesterday with tears in her eyes and mine, Joey held my hand and told me that she has been having serious talks with Jesus. She said she told him that if He's ready to take her... she's ready to come home."
In the years since launching their career and sharing her heartbreaking struggle with cancer, the Grammy-nominated couple has inspired countless supporters with their unbreakable faith in God and dedication to one another.
"God takes those gifts and adds in His timing and mixes it with all the years of joy and hardship and smiles and pain we've had, and He makes something bigger," Rory concluded. "And so Joey and I do our best to only see the plus's in our life."
