Conscious Adoption:

Seasoned Parents

Our next course:

2024 dates: October 16, 23, 30 and November 6, 13, 20

Time: Wed, 4-5:30p PT

Cost: $800/household (up to 2 people)

When your kids are adults there is often the false notion that the need to talk about adoption is over. When people adopt they are oftentimes told that love would be enough. Your kids are now adults with their own thoughts and feelings about adoption; unfortunately, love alone is not enough for you to engage in tough conversations about adoption with your adult adoptees.

Join us for a virtual six-week program to talk together and:

  • Reflect on why you chose adoption, and what you have learned over decades of raising children

  • Dig into the challenges of talking about adoption as an industry, gratitude, anger, adoption fog, search, reunion and race

  • Practice talking about these adoption issues with your adult children and with others, in ways that are clear, respectful, and helpful.

This is a 6 week course that covers all of the above and more in six 90 minute sessions. 

This curriculum has been developed by both an adoptee, Astrid Castro, Director and Founder of Adoption Mosaic, and an adoptive parent, Maureen McCauley. Our aim is to serve adoptees (including those who are adults) and parents in the spirit of openness and understanding.

Meet your facilitators below. Click on photos for bios!

*Each of our Conscious Adoption Adoptive Parent Education Courses is offered only once a year!

Maureen McCauley

Maureen McCauley

Consultant & Course Facilitator

(she/her)

Maureen is the adoptive parent of four children (all now in their 30’s), and also has two granddaughters.


Her professional background is in child welfare advocacy, as executive director of 3 adoption-related nonprofits. She connected with Astrid and Adoption Mosaic many years ago, and has presented and co-facilitated workshops with Adoption Mosaic for several years. Maureen loves the way Adoption Mosaic is adoptee-centered, and that it also welcomes all in the adoption community to grow and learn.


Maureen lives in Seattle, working primarily as a writer and editor.

Astrid Castro

Astrid has a degree in sociology with an emphasis in adoption. Since 1992, she has traveled the country to lead youth groups, present workshops on transracial parenting, how to talk with children about adoption, and various other workshops focusing on adoption. Prior to creating Adoption Mosaic, Astrid worked in both the private and public sectors of various adoption organizations such as the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center (ORPARC), Holt International and Rocky Mountain Adoption Exchange, and VIDA (while living in Italy).


She has also sat on several boards of directors (North American Council on Adoptable Children, Open Adoption and Family Services, Northwest Adoptive Families Association, Spoon Foundation)​ to support the adoption community.


Astrid has also been featured on many podcasts and contributed a chapter to the anthology, Parenting as Adoptees. She has also helped to develop materials such as Adoption in the Movies, and Adoptive Parent Training: Developing Communication Skills, an innovative, evidence-based, training DVD.


Astrid’s personal experiences as an adoptee, a woman of color, and growing up in a white family and community, fuel her professional path to helping others. She is aware of the benefit of post-adoption services for individuals and their families and seeks to bring these services to the adoption community.


When Astrid is not working she loves training for half marathons, firing up her outdoor pizza oven and sharing homemade pizza with family and friends and biking with her little dogs, Guapo and Baci. Her absolute favorite thing is to enjoy the adventures of life with her amazing daughter.


Maureen McCauley

Katie Christians

Event Manager & Trainer

(she/her)

Katie is a Portland native who graduated from Portland State University in 2016. She is currently a project manager in construction as a Compliance Specialist focusing on DEI work.


Katie was adopted interracially as an infant in an open adoption that was then consequently closed in her teens. She was one of the first adoptions through Open Adoption and Family Services in 1988.


Since the age of 14, she has worked closely with adoptive family groups and organizations, participating in workshops, panels, and other events. Katie is interested in exploring adoption beyond the social narrative of “rainbows and unicorns”. She has learned that sharing her story promotes healing in both herself and other constellation members.

Hear from our community!

  • "Adoption Mosaic is a solid rock, in the midst of a sea of information [and] misinformation. When I want information, resources, and learning opportunities I can trust, I turn to Adoption Mosaic."

    ~Rachel Ginnochio, adoptive parent

  • "Adoption Mosaic has been a huge support for us in navigating issues around transracial adoption and reunion with birth family. Adoption Mosaic helps me be a more compassionate parent."

    Karen Orth, adoptive parent

  • "[Adoption Mosaic's] offerings are varied, thoughtful, provocative and powerful in the way they put adoptees first...We are relieved, as parents of young adult adoptees, to have found this resource."

    Sue Unkenholz, adoptive parent

  • Astrid has built a beautiful and much needed resource for adoptive families. If you have been touched by adoption, no matter your role, this is the place for you. I want everyone to know of Adoption Mosaic: if you need support-she's got you.

    ~Robyn Strelitz, adoptive parent

Read more testimonials

A Note From Astrid

For my adoptees out there, you are never too old to ask your adoptive parents to be adoption fluent. And similarly, for my adoptive parents out there, you are never too old to join and learn from one of our courses. 

At Adoption Mosaic we believe adoptees should not be solely responsible for educating and supporting their adoptive parents in becoming adoption fluent. We have created adoptive parent education courses that can benefit adoptive parents no matter the age of their children. 

Seeing my parents make the effort to understand adoption from the adoptee point-of-view saved our relationship. My parents are now able to engage in conversations about adoption with more openness and less defensiveness. 

When parents adopt, they are usually excited, happy, and a bit anxious, all at the same time. They may build on what the adoption agency provided in pre-adoption training, and then often settle into family life. The kids grow up so fast! Adoptive parents may become grandparents. And the issues related to adoption are over, right?

I am so proud of the work Maureen McCauley and I have done in developing the first of its kind course designed for “Seasoned Adoptive Parents”. 

For me, seeing my parents make the effort to understand adoption from my adoptee point-of-view well into my adulthood strengthened our relationship in very profound ways.

Our hope in offering this course to adoptive parents of adult children is to help create stronger family bonds between adoptees and their parents. We believe adoptees should not be solely responsible for educating and supporting their adoptive parents in becoming adoption fluent and adoption competent.

~ Astrid

Not sure which course is right for you?

Schedule a free 15 min consultation with Astrid.