Rory Feek's Daughter Heidi Responds to Dad's Blog Post amid Family Dispute: 'We Are Taking Action'

Heidi Feek is speaking out in an open letter to her father, Rory Feek, amid a family dispute over custody of Rory’s youngest daughter, Indiana.

Heidi (37) and her sister Hopie (35) are considering legal action against their musician father Rory, who they claim prevented them from contacting Indiana (10) and thus put her in danger.

In response, Rory, 59, published a blog post on Sunday, August 31, titled “Love, Dad,” in which he said his daughter’s allegations “broke my heart,” and that Indiana had “never been more loved or better than it is now.”

That same day, Heidi wrote an open letter to her father responding to his blog post, saying that she and Hopie were “just happy to hear from him” after repeated appeals to no avail.

“Of course you’re right, online is not the place to deal with this. We don’t know if you’re aware, but we’ve been trying to reach you offline for months, but you’re not responding,” she wrote in a letter she shared with PEOPLE and later posted on Instagram. “We hope this letter finds you, so you know where our hearts are. Love is action, not words. We forgive you for the unkind words. You called us cowards in your blog post for not standing up to you. We forgive you.”

Rory Feek and daughter Indiana in 2019.

Jason Kempin/Getty

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She continued, “The last time we sat down for this conversation, without an intermediary as you requested, you told us that you were no longer our father. We forgive you.”

Heidi also included a screenshot of multiple unanswered text messages to her dad that were sent at different times in July asking about Indiana, who Heidi says she last saw in June.

As the letter went on, Heidi went on to list things she and her sister “forgive” Rory for, including the time he allegedly “abandoned” his daughters in the middle of the night when they were children and boarded a Greyhound bus (Rory recounts this incident in his audiobook, saying he went to the train station without telling anyone and asked for a ticket to “anywhere but here” Greyhound, but later returned home after wondering who would raise Heidi and Hopie).

“We found peace in our own lives and started a long road of healing,” Heidi wrote in her letter. “We came out stronger on the other side of our childhood.”

Heidi also wrote that she feels “broken” by Rory’s claim that Indiana’s care has never been better, especially in relation to Rory’s late wife (and Indiana’s mother) Joey, who died in 2016, when the child was just 2 years old. Rory married a woman named Rebecca in July.

Hopie, Indiana and Heidi Feek.

Heidi Feek/Instagram

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“My heart hurts for Joey. You went on to say: ‘He has a mother for the first time in his life.’ How can you say that?” Heidi wrote.

She also spoke at length about her concerns about Homestead Heritage, the “intentional agricultural and craft-based Christian community” that Rory and Rebecca are a part of. Several members have been arrested and charged with child abuse in the past; Rory admitted there can be “a few bad apples” in large groups, while the community itself said in a statement that “in every case of abuse we’ve ever encountered, it was our ministry that exposed and reported the crime.”

“Love is an action. And we love our little sister Indiana more than anything in the world. So we are taking action,” Heidi and Hopie wrote. “Love, your daughter.”

Along with their letter, Heidi’s husband Dillon Hodges wrote his own letter to Rory addressing Rory’s decision to stop letting Indiana spend the night at Heidi and Dillon’s house in Alabama. On his blog, Rory said that Indiana “absolutely” misses her sisters, and that he “constantly asks about them and would love to see them.” Still, he said he stopped allowing sleepovers because Hopie and Heidi “refused to respect my wishes while she was there,” and that the crux of the disagreement was the type of entertainment each side wanted to expose Indiana to.

“Although I did my best to respect your wishes when Indy came to visit us (we never allowed her to watch screens and always prayed before meals, etc.), I admit that I regularly let her listen to Disney songs (and sometimes even Whitney Houston) on my iPhone,” Hodges wrote. “I know you said no music, but please don’t punish the girls for my actions.”

Hodges said he also recorded conversations between Rory and his older daughters.

“I was shocked and horrified by the way you treated all of your children, so I felt the need to document it,” he wrote. “You are not a hero. You are not a victim.”

Heidi’s attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request, and it remains unclear whether Rory’s older daughters have yet to sue him, and for what.

“I know they are angry and frustrated and want justice for the wrongs they feel have been done,” Rory wrote. “But if I’ve learned anything in my almost 60 years, it’s that it doesn’t work like this… I’ll readily admit that I wasn’t a perfect father when they were young, but I tried to be good. And I continue to do my best for Indiana every day.”

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Source: HIS Education