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" At first glance, it would seem that nothing could ruffle her feathers. On top of the world professionally, Faith Hill is happily wed to heartthrob Tim McGraw. Together they share a sprawling, bucolic farm in Tennessee with their three beautiful daughters. But when one of the little McGraw girls refuses to listen to her mama, Faith isn&amp;#039;t afraid to show her tougher side and let loose with a warning that will strike a familiar chord with fed-up mothers across America: &amp;quot;Girl, I brought you into this world, and I will take you out!&amp;quot;  Sure, she&amp;#039;s a Grammy-winning glamour gal, but Faith Hill is just a working wife and mom at heart. She&amp;#039;s famous for her red-carpet style, but she&amp;#039;s happiest in a T-shirt and jeans. Her flaxen hair is long and lustrous, but she&amp;#039;s endured the sort of nightmare haircut that would make any woman lock herself in the bathroom. She&amp;#039;s got a marriage many would envy, but she&amp;#039;s known her share of heartbreak.  Maybe that&amp;#039;s why, despite the fact that Faith Hill seems to have all the luck, we don&amp;#039;t begrudge her any of it. In the face of daunting obstacles, Faith has shown the strength and grace of not only a star, but a survivor. As she faces her next challenge--an acting debut opposite Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler in a new version of the movie The Stepford Wives (see &amp;quot;Faith&amp;#039;s Next Move,&amp;quot; page 217)--it is impossible not to root for a gal who has fought so hard for happiness.  Painful family secrets, a failed first marriage, a concealed medical crisis--Faith has been through it all, though she&amp;#039;s rarely talked about these struggles. Growing up in the tiny town of Star, Mississippi, Faith had a loving family life, if not a typical one. She always knew she was adopted. &amp;quot;I had been told that [my birth mother] had an affair with a married man, and he didn&amp;#039;t want to leave his wife to marry her, so she gave me up for adoption,&amp;quot; Faith has said. &amp;quot;But it was completely untrue.&amp;quot; In fact, that story may well have been constructed to spare Faith the painful truth that her birth parents did go on to marry each other and have another child--whom they did not put up for adoption. Luckily, Ted and Edna Perry were looking to add to their brood of two boys, Wesley and Steven. But at the time of Faith&amp;#039;s adoption, Ted Perry was already facing a struggle that would mark Faith&amp;#039;s otherwise happy childhood: He was illiterate.  Faith&amp;#039;s mother, Edna, worked as a bank teller; her father, Ted, was a factory worker at the Presto Manufacturing Company plant in nearby Jackson, Mississippi. One of 13 children, Ted Perry had to quit school in the fourth grade and go to work to help make ends meet. He never went back. &amp;quot;He is smart,&amp;quot; Faith has said. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s done really well. But there&amp;#039;s a whole other world out there in reading. I didn&amp;#039;t understand how important it was until I became an adult and realized how much he missed out on.&amp;quot; For her part, Faith also felt she was missing something. &amp;quot;I was adopted into this incredible home, a loving, positive environment, yet I had this yearning, this kind of darkness that was also inside me,&amp;quot; she has admitted. Faith wanted a connection with her birth parents, as well as something much larger and harder to attain: stardom. All at once, she would begin searching for both.  In 1987, Faith, then 19, moved to Nashville. &amp;quot;I can&amp;#039;t begin to understand what it was like for Faith back then,&amp;quot; says Daniel Hill, Faith&amp;#039;s first husband, whose last name she continues to use. &amp;quot;There were monumental changes happening in her world at that time, personally and professionally.&amp;quot;  And he would play a big part in both. &amp;quot;I had a meeting with a young songwriter,&amp;quot; recalls Daniel, who worked for a music publishing company at the time. &amp;quot;About 20 minutes before our meeting, he called to ask if he could bring a friend from Mississippi to sit in. Little did I know he was bringing my future wife!&amp;quot; Faith had moved to town only a few days earlier. &amp;quot;I was immediately floored by her presence,&amp;quot; says Daniel, &amp;quot;and I hadn&amp;#039;t even heard her sing yet.&amp;quot; After Faith dropped by his office a few times, Daniel asked her out. Their first date was also Faith&amp;#039;s first experience with raw fish. &amp;quot;Apparently they didn&amp;#039;t have a sushi bar in Star, Mississippi,&amp;quot; says Daniel. &amp;quot;But she was adventurous and willing to try.&amp;quot;  Daniel also helped Faith get a job as a receptionist at a music company owned by Nashville singer and businessman Gary Morris. &amp;quot;We were constantly going to artist showcases and songwriter nights together,&amp;quot; Daniel says. Soon the two were married. &amp;quot;Faith was a devoted wife to Daniel,&amp;quot; says Gary, Faith&amp;#039;s old friend and former boss. &amp;quot;It was one of those things where she said, &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m marrying one time,&amp;#039; and this was it and he was the guy.&amp;quot; Faith was young, and country-music superstardom seemed far off. Says Daniel: &amp;quot;She was charming, talented, ambitious. But she was also confused. She moved to Nashville to sing, but at times she would get frustrated with the music business, and her priorities seemed to shift toward more domestic pursuits, such as cooking and decorating our home,&amp;quot; he remembers. &amp;quot;She even considered enrolling in interior design school. I always tried to steer her back toward music, where I knew her true talent was. The interior design industry doesn&amp;#039;t know what it missed!&amp;quot; Faith was also seriously searching for her birth mother. &amp;quot;Faith was working for me when she found her,&amp;quot; says Gary. &amp;quot;We talked about it--what she should do--and I told her I thought she should go [see her].&amp;quot; Faith was stunned when she finally came face-to-face with the woman who shares her good genes. &amp;quot;I look like her, and I walk like her. I actually look most like her mother, my granny,&amp;quot; she recently confessed. Faith also got to meet her biological father and full brother.  And she got some questions answered. &amp;quot;The first time I met [my birth mother], I just stared at her,&amp;quot; Faith has said. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d never seen anyone that looked anything like me. It was the awe of seeing someone you came from. It fills something.&amp;quot; Faith also found out where her creative side comes from. Her birth mother is an artist--a painter. Faith insists she isn&amp;#039;t bitter about being given up for adoption. &amp;quot;I have a lot of respect for my birth mother and no feelings of anger or any of that,&amp;quot; she has said. &amp;quot;I know she must have had a lot of love for me to want to give me what she felt was a better chance.&amp;quot;  But the experience of meeting her birth mother changed Faith. &amp;quot;When she came back, she had some closure,&amp;quot; Gary says. &amp;quot;It was something that was important and a real emotional time for her.&amp;quot; Faith&amp;#039;s childhood friend Kathy Jones agrees. &amp;quot;She felt like somebody had just lifted a huge weight off of her life,&amp;quot; Jones has said. &amp;quot;She was able to move on.&amp;quot; But moving on included letting go of what had become a strained marriage. &amp;quot;Meeting her birth mother had a profound impact on Faith, which led to a profound failure of our marriage,&amp;quot; Daniel Hill says. Faith has explained the breakup this way: &amp;quot;I was going through so much. I was like a flower trying to bud. Marriage wasn&amp;#039;t what I needed. It was a disguise. That&amp;#039;s not to say anything bad about the person I married. But what I needed was to deal with the issues of my own life.&amp;quot; The couple split in 1991 after nearly five years of marriage. Gary Morris, still her boss at the time, witnessed the end of the union. &amp;quot;I think she had a reality check. She grew up and changed her views about what was important to her.&amp;quot; What mattered now was her career. Faith, who had been making demo tapes and singing backup at shows around Nashville, landed a deal with Warner Bros. Music in 1992. A year later, she released her first album, Take Me As I Am, and was well on her way to becoming a star. The album was produced by Nashville power player Scott Hendricks, who was clearly taken with the young singer. &amp;quot;Besides her considerable talent and voice, I think part of the magic is in her radiant personality,&amp;quot; he said at the time. Faith soon started dating him.  Yet nothing could have prepared Faith for the sparks that would fly on the aptly named Spontaneous Combustion tour in 1996. That year, after her second album came out, Faith hit the road as the opening act for the hot young country singer Tim McGraw. By this time, Faith was engaged to Scott Hendricks, and Tim was planning to marry his longtime girlfriend. But being otherwise engaged couldn&amp;#039;t stop true love. &amp;quot;It obviously wasn&amp;#039;t a rock-solid situation or it wouldn&amp;#039;t have ended,&amp;quot; Faith has said of her relationship with Hendricks. Before long, Faith and Tim had broken up with their respective partners and, on October 6, 1996, the rising stars were married at the home of Tim&amp;#039;s aunt Barbara, near his hometown of Start, Louisiana. In Tim, Faith has found someone with the same small-town values and a similarly unconventional upbringing. Tim McGraw knows what it means to grow up with family secrets: His own father was baseball legend Tug McGraw, a fact that Tim, who was raised by his mom and stepfather, didn&amp;#039;t learn until he was 11 years old. But Tim eventually grew close to his father, and Faith bonded with her father-in-law--in fact, before Tug McGraw succumbed to brain cancer this past January at age 59, he spent his final days with Faith and Tim; he died in a cabin on their farm. Together, Faith and Tim have formed a partnership based as much on mutual respect as passion. &amp;quot;I think Tim and Faith came to the party as equals,&amp;quot; says Gary Morris. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s apparent to me that they love each other more than they love their work.&amp;quot;  And Faith has found a way to mix work with pleasure. As her stardom has increased, Faith hasn&amp;#039;t been afraid to have fun with her bombshell good looks. When she first entered the country music scene, she was downright adorable--with golden ringlets and curls more reminiscent of Shirley Temple than Lana Turner. But when she launched her hit album Breathe in 1999, Faith paired her sultry new sound with a seductive new appearance (see &amp;quot;Hairdo Hits and Misses,&amp;quot; page 143). Still, she hasn&amp;#039;t been immune to a bad hair day: An edgy, platinum-blond shag haircut, which she debuted at the American Music Awards in 2001, was derided by the press as looking like &amp;quot;a bale of hay.&amp;quot; Though she defended her choice at first, Faith later confided that she had been less than thrilled with the cut: &amp;quot;It was like being naked in front of millions of people.&amp;quot;  However, Faith has weathered far worse storms. In 1997, she and Tim had their first child, daughter Gracie. The following year, daughter Maggie came along. Despite Faith&amp;#039;s two Cesarean sections, the couple went for a third baby in 2001. But on December 6 of that year, during a routine checkup with her obstetrician, Faith, then seven months pregnant, received terrifying news: Her baby was in danger. &amp;quot;The doctor said my [amniotic] fluid had just gone,&amp;quot; Faith has explained. &amp;quot;My placenta had stopped working.&amp;quot; She needed an emergency C-section. Tim rushed to the hospital to be by Faith&amp;#039;s side, as did both sets of grandparents. At 4:39 that afternoon, Audrey Caroline was born, weighing just three pounds 11 ounces.  At the time, the couple dismissed reports that the situation was touch and go. In fact, little Audrey was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit in a Nashville hospital, where Faith and Tim were allowed to touch her only if they were wearing latex gloves. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d stick my finger in the little isolette, and my first knuckle would be her entire hand,&amp;quot; Faith has recalled of Audrey&amp;#039;s early days. The baby, whose lungs were not fully developed, stayed in the hospital for several weeks. Her parents got a room in a nearby hotel and visited every three hours. &amp;quot;That was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life,&amp;quot; Faith has said. &amp;quot;We didn&amp;#039;t know what the outcome was going to be. It was frightening; it was alarming. We said a lot of prayers.&amp;quot; The prayers paid off: Today, Audrey is &amp;quot;totally normal. She&amp;#039;s fat and happy and laughing,&amp;quot; according to her mother.  These days, Faith and Tim&amp;#039;s household looks much like any other home in America--any home with three kids under the age of six. Older daughters Gracie and Maggie are not immune to temper tantrums, throwing themselves down on the floor of a store, their mom reports. And little Audrey has headed into the terrible twos. &amp;quot;I know one of the reasons God gave me kids was to test my patience,&amp;quot; Faith has said. She doesn&amp;#039;t put much stock in newfangled child-rearing techniques: &amp;quot;I try to go through this whole thing of letting a child be the person that she is, and then it&amp;#039;s like, OK, forget about that. You&amp;#039;re wearing what I say you&amp;#039;re gonna wear! I say no, and that&amp;#039;s enough!&amp;quot;  Meanwhile, Faith has healed many of the wounds from her past. Inspired by her father&amp;#039;s battle, she started the Faith Hill Family Literacy Project, cosponsored by Warner Bros. Records and Time Warner, to help raise money for literacy programs. As part of the project, Faith set up book drives at her concerts, then donated the more than one million books she collected to local schools, libraries, and shelters. She&amp;#039;s also appeared in public service announcements, and she and Tim have auctioned off memorabilia to raise money, which she donated to the National Center for Family Literacy, among other groups. Today, Faith&amp;#039;s dad has come a long way in his struggle with illiteracy, and Faith has said she is enormously proud of him.  Faith has found peace with her birth mother too. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t talk to her as much as I&amp;#039;d like, but I think about her and my brother every day.&amp;quot; Faith has introduced Tim and her daughters to her birth mother, but not Ted and Edna Perry. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d love for them to meet her,&amp;quot; Faith said not long ago. &amp;quot;Not yet. But hopefully someday.&amp;quot;  These days her energy is very much focused on the family she has created. But she&amp;#039;s been busy on other fronts too: In addition to her highly successful album, Cry, released in 2002, she is now pursuing her long-held dream of becoming an actress. Though she had vied for a role in Cold Mountain (which eventually went to Natalie Portman), Faith was thrilled to land the role of Sarah Sunderson in The Stepford Wives, an update of the 1975 camp classic. She&amp;#039;s come a long way from singing for the 4-H club in Star, Mississippi--and she isn&amp;#039;t about to forget it. &amp;quot;I have worries and fears just like everybody else,&amp;quot; she told Good Housekeeping in 2002. &amp;quot;But I have every reason to wake up each morning and be very happy.&amp;quot; Hairdo hits (and misses) She&amp;#039;s had almost as many looks as Madonna: from cutie-pie curls to sleek extensions to a razored shag--the cut heard round the world. Here&amp;#039;s a look at the changing face of Faith.   1994 Frizz fighter: classic country hair  1995 Swept away: sporting a sleek bun  1999 Over-extended: long and sleek  2000 Making waves: lovely, loose curls  1/2001 Cut off: a bold new look  2/2001 Flipping out: a fun grow-out  2002 Main event: flowing locks  1/2003 Golden girl: honey-hued hair  11/2003 Lovely lady: her latest style   Faith&amp;#039;s next move  Originally released in 1975, The Stepford Wives quickly became a cult classic. In the updated version (to be released this summer), Nicole Kidman plays a young wife who discovers that the eerily docile housewives of the town of Stepford (above, in the original film) are actually robots designed to do their husband&amp;#039;s bidding. Faith plays Sarah Sunderson, one of the blissful, beautiful automatons. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/inspirational-stories/interviews/a15246/faith-hill-renewed-apr04/>