Cabela's Fishing Guide in Training

Born on New Years Day 2000, my oldest son Wyatt is probably one of the most sensitive, kind hearted boys I will ever meet. Dark brown hair and icy blue eyes with inch long lashes, he's strikingly handsome and the kind of boy that other kids just like because he's kind.

Wyatt eats, sleeps, and breaths fishing. He is the only child that I've ever known who will chop ice on a Kansas pond to try to catch fish in the middle of winter. He's never deterred by those who tell him that he won't catch fish on a day like that. He goes anyway because he loves to fish, even if he doesn't catch a thing. In the summer on the weekends, it's not uncommon for him to wake me up at daybreak to tell me that he's walking down to the pond to fish while the rest of us are still sleeping. His little brother is not even watching cartoons yet and he's on his way to stalk the elusive big bass.

I often think about how sad it is that my Grandpa Gray died before Wyatt was born. My Grandpa Gray was a fisherman too and in the summer would fish everyday. Whether he was catching catfish on the river or bass on a farm pond, he was fishing. I know without a doubt that Wyatt would have been his best fishing buddy. More than likely we would have hardly seen the two of them all summer. He would have learned a few words and expressions that a mother just doesn't want her child to learn as a boy, but he would have learned priceless lessons and made indelible memories to last the test of time. I know that Grandpa knows Wyatt though. There's more than a little Grandpa Gray in him.

Wyatt started shooting trap when he was eight and the first time we threw him targets shot 60% of his targets shooting 20 gauge with a full length stock. He wants to be like his Dad and shoot trap competitively.

After I divorced my first husband and became a single Mom, his biological father stopped seeing him or calling when he was 4 years old. He was heartbroken and truly felt a void in his heart left by a man who just walked away from two perfect sons. So many times we prayed for God to send us someone who would love us and make our lives whole. God sent us Andy and he is now Dad. They picked eachother and that is the most special of bonds that a father and son can have. How special for a child to know that out of all the kids in the world, his Dad chose him. That's something even I can't give him.

Wyatt says that when he grows up he's going to be a Cabela's Hunting and Fishing Guide. I guess they actually have those. He would know. That's my Wyatt.