Welcome to the world baby boy, Ian Joseph. Your mommy, daddy, and big sister already love you so much. You are the perfect little one to add to our family. Your sisters Annabelle and Zoey are also happy you're here.
I will work on getting a post together about his Bris, but in the meantime, here is the speech Cody made (and I very likely, probably, almost certainly, wrote for him).
"Today our baby boy, Ian Joseph Glickman, officially enters into the covenant that is our community of the Jewish tribe. While it is a nation that you were born into, it is also one that you get to choose each day to embrace and to be proud of.
When it comes to Ian’s first name and meaning, there really is no deep meaning, other than we are his parents and we like it.
His middle name, however, was a non negotiable. By being blessed with a little boy, giving her son the name Joseph, after her Zaidy, was a given.
While we would have preferred for Ian and Zaidy to have met in person, they are already connected with Ian being born on the 18th English anniversary of Zaidy’s passing.
Ian Joseph’s super Zaidy, Shana’s mom’s father, was an incredible man who held himself to extremely high standards. He was a well respected Rabbi and Chazzan in Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida. He was the only brother to six sisters and a father to three daughters. He was a teacher at the Yeshivas, a counselor for his community, and a wrestler for fun. And he was always dressed in his three piece suit with his top hat. He protected and saved the lives of his sisters multiple times, walked with his shul at the March of Washington, and was adamant about women having access to learning Torah.
And while Zaidy was this towering respectable person, it is the memories that Shana has that are most significant. It is her memories of spending shabbos and holidays at his house that reinforces how special of a time it is for kids to have family around. They also had daily Torah chats after school. He had so much pride, love and genuine care, while sitting at the dining room table together, sometimes a little too late into the night because she didn’t know how to respectfully remind him that she was only 8 years old.
But her most key memory is crawling and then walking climbing up the Bima stairs to be held while he sang Adon Olam. This memory is so important, that it has become genetically ingrained. Anyone who has been to shul in the past year has gotten to see our daughter, Laila, dance around and sing Adon Olam filled with genuine love and soul.
Bezrat Hashem, in another year, Ian Joseph will be singing along too.
Son, you come from a family of pioneering men and women who have fought hard to be here, which has resulted in you and your sister. While you’re named after Zaidy, you have multiple great grandfathers who love you dearly. Great grandpa Tom watched over you while you were cooking in mommy’s tummy. Super Poppy can’t wait to meet you in Florida. And Super Grandpa Chuckie booked his flight the moment he knew about your arrival. He’s been bawling his eyes out witnessing your Bris today.
You also have your Pops and Saba. Pops has your spot reserved in his red Cadillac and all the stickers you could ever want. And Saba is ready to take you in your first flight to somewhere unexpected that you’ll fall in love with. With the first one in a few weeks to the all exotic Boca Raton, Florida.
We also need to acknowledge your incredible Nana and Safta. Both of them will be snuggling you non stop until you’re off to college. And will protect you like mama lions fiercely defending their cubs. Nana will be sure that you are swinging from every obstacle course while upside down. Safta will be playing peekaboo and dancing around the house until you laugh so hard you fall asleep.
Ian Joseph. We pray for you to embody the chessed that Zaidy emulated while you to find your own path in living an honest, genuine, kind life who strives to be the best version of himself while caring for those around you. We pray for you to be surrounded with only love and support from everyone who you welcome into your life. We pray for you to find meaning and community in Torah and the Jewish nation.
We thank all of you for coming today. Our Denver family and friends has been there for us in such kind and welcoming ways. We could not imagine living here without you all. We especially love having Aunt Robin and Uncle Marty so close by.
We also thank our family and friends who joined us today on zoom from around the world. Hi auntie Paige, auntie Natanya, uncle Ari, uncle Justin, and uncle Chris.
Most importantly, I need to thank Shana for bringing you and your sister into this world. Being pregnant doesn’t look easy, especially not for your mommy. She has given up just about everything and put herself through the wringer each time to bring you each into this world. But she was determined. She knew how special you would both be and she wants you to have the most wonderful lives only filled with love. And she wanted that to start right away by putting together this incredible day.
She has been working hard for weeks (shh I probably shouldn’t have said that), to make sure you had this beautiful bris. She’s been baking and researching decor endlessly. And while you, Ian, can not appreciate and enjoy the sweets and food just yet, your sister will let you know that she really loved it all for you.
We love you both with all of our hearts."
xoxo,
Shana Bryn
Dress: Zimmerman
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