Many people decide to adopt after they have been unsuccessful with infertility treatment. Infertility involves many losses and grief is a natural and common feeling, but it is important to come to terms with this grief before you adopt. In this course, we talk with Carole Lieber Wilkins, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in adoption, infertility, and third party reproduction. She is also a mom through adoption and egg donation.

This course covers the following topics:

  • Adoptive parenting is the same as, and very different from, genetic parenting. Ways in which raising adopted children is different. Ways in which it is the same.
  • What are the losses of infertility?
  • How to know when you are ready to stop fertility treatments and move to adoption? What are the signs of readiness?
  • The myth of needing to do everything that you can to become pregnant before moving to adoption or third party reproduction. 
  • How have the advances in infertility medicine changed the landscape of moving to adoption?
  • Coping with the unknowns of adoption.
  • How to know when you are ready to adopt.
  • How to say good-bye to the biological child that you never had.
  • Tips for coping with the losses of infertility.
  • Adopting while staying in treatment.
  • Should you go back into infertility treatment after having adopted a child?
  • Tips for deciding whether you should go back into fertility treatment after adoption.
  • How to find a mental health professional that specializes in infertility.


*This course includes a 1-hour conversational audio lesson, a 10-question quiz, and a certificate of completion with the successful completion of the quiz at 80%. 

Your course will remain active for 180 days from purchase date.

This course aligns with the following regulatory requirements.

Illinois Licensing Standard §401.520

*Important Information for agencies on Illinois Adoption Requirements.


Nebraska Licensing Requirement 005.16(D)(i)(1) & (2)

*Important Information for agencies on Nebraska Adoption Requirements.