Medical History

Several weeks ago, I had my first experience in filling out a medical form for Seth, a prerequisite to one of the programs he's involved in.  I was comfortable answering questions about whether he'd had any injuries in the past year (and I didn't even need a full page to detail them all!), but I drew a blank on some of the questions that asked details about his history - questions such as whether or not the child had a history of concussions.  My hand hovered over the 'yes' and 'no' boxes; there was no spot available to say that I didn't know.

I was surprised by how much I really just wanted to answer 'no' - that he has no history of concussions.  I really wanted to claim knowledge of that area of my son's life; he is my son and I should know these things.  But of course, in the end I concluded that I just didn't know and so I had to write on the side of the paper that I didn't know the answer.  Although we know a fair bit of the kids' medical history, thanks to conversations we were able to have with their first father, it's simply impossible to know everything...and I never thought to ask about concussions.

The medical history of children adopted internationally is often very sparse and we likely know more than most families about their children's medical histories simply because we thought to ask a little about this area of Seth's (and Lizzie's) life in Ethiopia.  But it was a strange experience that undoubtedly will be repeated many times in his life.  It made me a little sad.