Unknown

I write it across four-fifths of the page.

"Unknown".

And this is the forth time I've found myself here in the past few months.

Frozen while filling out a new patient form at a doctor's office for my 3 year old daughter who we adopted 4 months ago.

Each time I feel very strange writing the word and sad at all we don't know.

Was she born premature?  Unknown

Birth weight?  Unknown

Bottle Fed or Breastfed?  Unknown

Any history of the long list of diseases in her biological family?  unknown, unknown, unknown . .

Has she ever had chicken pox?  Unknown

And on and on go the list of questions I cannot answer.

But, you know what?

I could focus on all that I don't know or focus on the things I do know about our little girl.

Like how to get her to go to sleep.

What she likes and doesn't like to eat.

What makes her laugh.

When I really need to get her to a bathroom right away and when I can ask her to hold it for a few minutes.

Her mannerisms and facial expressions.

I know her.  I know who she is.

But, more importantly, God knows.  He has always known her.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you"  Jeremiah 1:5

Known.

Praying as she grows that she will not let the unknowns define her, that she will embrace her identity as a daughter who is known and loved and cherished. 

Find more Thankful Thursday here.