I am the firstborn of three kids and the only girl in my family. My two ridiculously-talented brothers and I were raised by incredible parents who taught us to love God and His word! I was homeschooled by these parents all the way through high school. My first day of public school was my first day of college. By the way, my parents are Billy and Sarah Gaines who were Dove Award-winning, contemporary Christian artists for 17 years! For more on my parents and their awesome music, click this link!
My love for writing creative stories and plays started in grade school. I was creating characters, casting my friends in roles, and directing my own home movies! My mom made my costumes, my dad provided the camera and lighting. I began my creative career singing in my first studio session at eight years old singing a song my dad wrote for my siblings and me called, “Serving Jesus!” (P.S. It won a Dove Award! 🙂 when I saw Sister Act 2 in theatres as a young teen, I was so inspired I cried my eyes out and knew I wanted to inspire others with the gifts of performance and communication God had given me for the rest of my life! You can visit the Gallery and Bio for more on this!
I met this awesome man named Brian Hockett and fell madly in like with him, which led to the best friendship, which led to me falling in love with him, which led to me marrying him! Brian is a pastor’s kid. We attend Born Again Church which was founded by his father 40 years ago! We both serve at our church and Brian is also on staff. My husband is seriously the best! He is the funniest person ever, but only in private. I’ve given him the title, “Closet Ham” for this reason! He has been putting a smile on my face ever since I met him at the tender age of 18, and a little fun fact… he gave me my first kiss! For more on my hubby and me, click Brian & Rachel Hockett Bio.
Brian’s parents, my in-loves, are awesome people too! His mom, Kiwanis, also known as “Kitty”, founded Fashioned in His Image, Inc. (FIHI), over 30 years ago. FIHI is impacting numerous lives of women and girls! My father-in-love, Horace, also known as “Poppy,” is a complete creative genius at playwriting. Through “Living Parables,” the drama group he founded, he has put on and directed too many plays for me to count! His plays have been a huge tool in bringing people to Jesus! In fact, one of my favorite roles was playing a character in a play he wrote!! For more on FIHI, Living Parables, and our church, click the links!
I have two wonderful, precocious, curious, abundantly joyful children – Olivia Grace, and Briley Aiden! Coolest thing about their birthdays…they were both born exactly two years and one week apart to the minute, May 9, 2010, at 12:43 pm and May 16, 2012, at 12:43 pm! I totally took that non-coincidental-coincidence as a God-wink that they were “Beginning and End,” and that’s when we decided to close the baby factory!
