Carrie Underwood says three miscarriages strengthened her spirituality, making her 'get real with God'

After a highly public history of miscarriages before the successful birth of her second child in January, country-music star Carrie Underwood says her tribulations have only strengthened her spirituality.

"The miscarriages made me get real with God and say, 'OK, I'm kind of giving up a little bit. If this isn't meant to happen, then I need to accept that and know that someday I'll understand why,' " the singer, 36, says in the new issue of People magazine, being published Friday. Underwood had revealed in a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview in September that she and her husband had suffered three miscarriages since the year before. 

But eventually her prayers were answered, she told the magazine. "We heard that everything was OK and I was pregnant with Jacob," her second child with her husband of nearly nine years, former NHL hockey pro Mike Fisher, 39. "He's just this perfect little bundle of a smiley guy," she said of their son, who turns 5 months old on Friday. The couple also have 4-year-old son Isaiah.

The seven-time Grammy Award winner — whose travails have included severely injuring herself, which required hospitalization, after a fall at home in November 2017 — said, "I put a lot of stress on myself — I feel like a lot of moms do, a lot of women do." She's realized, she added, that "the best moments in my life are when I say, 'Hey, I can't control everything, and that's OK. God is in control.' "

Ultimately, said Underwood, being a parent has been self-empowering. "There is a thing about motherhood that makes you feel like, 'OK, if I can do that, I can do anything,' " she said. "And I feel like I'm a little older, a little wiser. This isn't my first rodeo."

Underwood brings her Cry Pretty tour to Madison Square Garden on Oct. 2.