My life these days feels as if it's in limbo. I am looking for a job halfheartedly, waiting to see if I get one so I can either start or put aside new writing projects. I spend a lot of my day going aimlessly from one task to the next. I try to be productive but it's hard to do so when surrounded with all this endless waiting.

This is nothing, however, compared to those of you waiting for your child. I've got my two boys, and whether or not I'm waiting for a 3rd is its own little limbo-filled situation. Mostly I spend my day waiting for them to get home from school so I can enjoy their noisiness and endless requests for snacks.

The limbo involved in Russian adoption seems endless. You hurry up and wait...only to hurry up and wait again.

First, you rush to get your homestudy done so you can get your INS approval...then you wait and wait...for the fingerprint appointment and the local branch to approve your paperwork.

Then you rush to complete your dossier - but not too fast! You don't want it to expire. Then you wait for it to be translated and sent to Russia.

These days, you also have to wait to see if your agency got NGO status...then you have to wait for reaccreditation!

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Then you wait for a referral. Sometimes the wait is up quickly, sometimes not so quickly.

Once you get your referral you wait to travel. Once you travel you wait to go back, then finally, finally! your limbo is over.

Then the real work begins: being a parent!