I know many of you have been tracking our child's development in utero via our website for the past 10 months. Z, as we called our child, was chosen as a way to avoid calling the baby "it" or "the baby." It was short for zygote, which is the stage of Z's development when we discovered our good fortune. The selection of Z lead many of you to believe that a Zoe or Zachary was in our future... However, as you now know that is not the case.

Lucas Charles is named after men that influenced my early years.

Lucas means "bringer of light" and since his arrival, we have basked in his light, which has brought joy to our hearts. Lucas was derived from my maternal great grandfather, Everett Lucia and his son, my great uncle, Timothy Lucia. These Lucia men played pivotal roles in my life, even though there were many miles between us. One of my favorite childhood vacations was one we took to "camp" as we called it. This was my grandfather's cabin on a lake in New Hampshire, which to this day has no indoor plumbing. This was a family reunion of sorts, all the aunts, uncles and cousins were assembled, over half whom were children under the age of 14. Grandpa Lucia with the help of my Uncle Timmy, aka Ranger Bucky, organized activities for the children - from swimming, canoeing, campfire stories to home movies. "Ranger Bucky," as we called him the entire week, even donned a ranger's hat. The home movies were my favorite activity. It was amazing to see my grandmother at age 12 traveling across country with her parents and siblings in an old station wagon stopping at many famous and not-so-famous landmarks. There was no sound to these movies but Ranger Bucky's narration made the adults laugh until they cried and kept the children entertained. These movies also showed how Grandpa Lucia instilled a wanderlust in his children, which was passed to his grandchildren. Uncle Timmy, who was also a pilot, created a relaxed environment wherever he went. You were always sure to laugh if he was in the room. It is our hope that Lucas will inherit from them -- a sense of adventure, a desire to see the world and quick humor that puts people at ease.

Charles comes from my paternal grandfather, Charles Canty. Charles means manly, strong. Grandpa Canty embodied these qualities. He was a man with quiet strength, but not one afraid to express himself. He loved to discuss and debate current issues. I'll never forget the first time he met Bill. It was as if they were kindred spirits. They spent hours at my brother's graduation talking. My grandmother would later tell me how fond Grandpa was of Bill based on their only encounter. He also knew how to enjoy life, I remember riding snowmobiles in the middle of a Maine winter with him, my father, uncle and cousins. He let us drive a little faster than our mothers would have preferred but trusted us to be careful. He also was a very handy guy who never sat still. Retirement to him meant moving to Florida to start his own handyman business. Our hope is that Lucas Charles will be a conversationalist like his great grandfather as well as inherit his sense of fun and desire to take life by the horns.

We want to thank you for joining us this morning as we welcome our son into the Jewish community.