Snip, Snip

When Ben was eight days old he had a bris. The photo above is of him on the day of the ceremony being held by his great grandparents, Elmer and Lelah. When I was pregnant with him and we decided to have him circumcised it was not a really hard decision for me to make. It was important to Josh and I figured that every male I had known had survived it so how bad could it be? Once Ben was here in the flesh it was terrifying. I wanted to escape the morning of the ceremony with my son (who I figured had come out perfect just the way he was) so that I could keep him intact. I settled for leaving the room during the actual cutting part. All in all the pressure was relieved a bit by the fact that we had our friends and family present and that we had helped write the ceremony and had family and friends participating in the readings. So it really felt like we were welcoming Ben into the world. Sam's bris yesterday was not at all like Ben's and for that I mostly blame myself. When we had the sonogram where we found out Sam was a boy my heart sank a bit. Not because I didn't want to have another boy, but because I was hoping to avoid the whole circumcision decision. I knew that another bris was going to be unavoidable so I told Josh that he had to deal with the whole thing and that I didn't want to invite anyone etc. And now I wish I had made more of an effort to have people we have met here in Austin to come and celebrate Sam's arrival in some fashion rather than just survive the whole ordeal. It was unfair to Sam. I didn't even take a single photograph. If I had it to do over again I would make an effort to invite the people who have opened their hearts to us in Austin and to join us in celebrating this joyous new addition to our family. Even if I still had to leave the room.