Genesis 34

     There is a story in the Old Testament, (Genesis 34) where a daughter of Jacob's has been defiled.  The offending party wants to marry the girl so he being an outsider, goes to the family to offer a huge dowry.  The brothers of the girl are angry and suggest to the outsider that if he and all the men of his tribe be circumcised (like Jacob's sons are) the outsider tribe can have any women they wish and live happily ever after.  This was a trick.  Genesis 34: 25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that the two sons of Jacob (the angry brothers) took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.... and spoiled the city... took all their wealth, wives took they captive."  

     I had always wondered why those men didn't fight back?  Now I have a complete understanding of the trauma related to circumcision.  My two sweet boys were both circumcised this month and it was not pretty. And it was a much longer recovery than the 1-2 days the doctor suggested.  Here are the boys pre-surgery. Not exactly oblivious but not really sure what to expect.   

     This was after.  After the tears, after the screaming, and after lots of children's Codeine. They sat like this and didn't move for 5 days.  I even felt so bad i would carry them to the potty the first day.  They could have easily been slain like the men of the old testament.  Poor sad boys. 

      If you are wondering why we didn't do this when they were babies, here is the brief explanation.  We were not planning on having them circumcised at all initially because the only reason to do so now is for aesthetics.  We figured spare them extra pain. There is no biological reason to circumcise boys.  So we didn't.  However, come to find out that there is a genetic condition (thank you craig or harrison side) called phimosis where the foreskin never fully retracts from the head of the penis.  This is not a problem in childhood but can have complications for the adult male.  We didn't know about this condition until recently because foreskins retract anytime from the ages of 3-6.  Sometimes as late as 12.  Now that Carson is past 6 and nothing has happened in that area, we had the boys checked out.  The options were to wait until they turned 12 and maybe they would retract or circumcise them now or later.  

     Could you imagine how traumatic it would be to circumcise a 12 year old boy who is already self conscious about being in puberty. No thank you.  So we had it done.  I'm hoping the boys are still young enough to not really remember this traumatic event.  The best line of the whole week was when Cooper told Grandma that' "my penis is rotten".  Well thank goodness this event is over.  On the bright side of things, I do have a renewed understanding of an old testament story.