Sammy Kershaw Welcomes 'Gift from God' Daughter Natelia Mae: See Her First Photo

Sammy Kershaw has a new baby to love!

The country musician and longtime girlfriend Mendy Gregory welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Natelia Mae Kershaw, on Wednesday, Sept. 11. Born at 10:39 p.m. in Lafayette, Louisiana, she weighed in at 7 lbs. and measured 19 inches long.

“Natelia was my grandmother’s name and Mae was Mendy’s grandmother’s name,” Kershaw, 61, tells PEOPLE. “She is a gift from God.”

Natelia is the fifth child for Kershaw. He is also dad to four adult children: daughters Emily, Erin and Sammie, plus son Brandon. He also told The Boot in a 2010 interview that he considers ex-wife Kim’s son Ryan “my boy.”

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The Louisiana-born crooner opened up about being a dad to The Boot in 2010, admitting that the hardest part of his job was that “I missed my children growing up because I was gone so much.”

“My third wife really raised my children and did a hell of a job,” Kershaw said of Kim, whom he was married to from 1985 to 1999. (Aside from Kim and two women before her, Kershaw was also previously married to Lorrie Morgan from 2001 to 2007.)

“I have great kids but I was gone all the time so I can’t really take all of the credit for having great children,” continued the past Grammy nominee. “I have to give credit where credit is due and that’s my ex-wife Kim.”

“Emily is 15, Erin is 22, she just enrolled in law school,” Kershaw added at the time. “Ryan is 28 — that’s Kim’s son but he was with me since he was 1½ years old — he’s my boy really, then Sammie, my oldest daughter, is 31 and my oldest son Brandon is 33.”

Kershaw’s impressive career includes more than 30 singles released on the radio, including hit tracks like “Cadillac Style” and “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful.” To date, he has sold over 5 million albums.

The country star is currently on tour through early December and, according to his website, “is putting the finishing touches on his long-awaited autobiography — which promises to be as juicy as a bowl of the gumbo he loves to prepare in his Louisiana home!”

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