My wife, Gwen, and I got a surprise on April 1, but it had nothing to do with the usual April Fool’s Day jokes. Rather, we got a beautiful blessing with the birth of our daughter, Mia Faith.
We already have two girls — Stella (7) and Jovi (4) — so we were hoping to have a boy. Gwen and I decided to let it be surprise, so we did not find out the baby’s gender before delivery.
When her head first came out, I kinda thought it looked like a boy, but at 3:28 p.m. Mia Faith officially arrived. I could not be happier. Boy or girl, when a baby comes into the world, it seems like a miracle. I can’t even fathom it.
Honestly I love every child we have, but whenever a father has a girl, the first thing I think is, “I have to protect this child.” I need to raise her right, and I need to teach her to be strong, especially in the world we live in today.
Obviously, Mia Faith is gonna be an outdoors girl, just like her sisters. We’ll all enjoy God’s creation and respect it.
My older girls already enjoy fishing with me. Our ponds have small bass and bluegill, but they’re happy to catch anything. We haven’t really gotten to the point where we’re serious, so I use baits that’ll catch anything.
Stella and Jovi both enjoy touching the fish, but Jovi is the trooper. She take the hooks out and if I tell her, “You can grab that fish by the lip,” she trusts me.
Both girls did well during their mother’s delivery, but Stella was concerned about seeing her sitting in a chair and connected to an IV. Gwen went full term and Mia Faith was a big baby — 8 pounds, 6 ounces — so the doctor didn’t want her waiting any longer.
He scheduled Gwen to start inducing labor at 6:30 a.m. on the first. We were so anxious, we didn’t sleep the night before. We had to be there at 5 a.m. and we live about 45 minutes from the medical facility, so we had to get up at 3:15.
Everything went well and I remember it was such a special moment when I looked up at my wife and said, “It’s a girl.”
We chose the middle name Faith because it reminds us of how we’ve committed ourselves to having faith in God to take care of us. That’s always been our belief, but after two miscarriages, Gwen and I have really come to trust Him.
When I won the 2023 Bassmaster Elite at St. Clair, I announced we were pregnant. Unfortunately, we lost that baby and one more, so when our third daughter was born, we decided to give her the middle name Faith because it represents our faith in God and reminds us of the two babies we lost.
It’s really the main part of my testimony. I try to encourage young people to get married and have kids. Whenever you have a child, your focus completely changes, and it’s based on your responsibility to take care of this child, set an example and raise them correctly.
My wife tells me, “God gave you girls for a reason,” and I think she’s right. I’m not the most patient person in the world, but having girls has taught me patience.
Raising kids is a lot of work, but it’s a blessing. It will change your life for the better.
