Conscious Adoption:

Transracial Parenting

Our next course:

2024 dates: September 10, 17, 24, and October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29

Time: Tues 4-5:30p PT

Cost: $1000/household (up to 2 people)

All transracial/interracial adoptees deserve to have parents that understand that race matters. Think about your family and community, are you raising your child in racial isolation? Adoption Mosaic has created this course to give adoptive parents a compassionate space to learn about race and racism.

Participants will gain in-depth knowledge AND will have the opportunity to move theory into practice by learning about:

  • The history of race & adoption in the U.S.

  • How to talk age-appropriately about race & racism

  • The struggle for identity of transracial adoptees

  • The role race & racism play in your family and community

This is an 8 week course that covers all of the above and more in eight 90 minute sessions. 

There are many aspects of transracial adoption that in the past were disregarded. Our team of transracial adoptees, including Astrid and Shelise speak to these topics and share their insights around ways to improve education around transracial adoption – ultimately improving the lives of both the adoptee and the family altogether. 

Meet the facilitators below. Click on photos for bios!

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

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.


Shelise Keum Mee Gieseke

Shelise Keum Mee Gieseke

Head of Operations

(she/her)

Shelise has been involved with Adoption Mosaic since 2008, as a volunteer and employee of Adoption Mosaic nonprofit. She has been involved in the adoption community for over a decade as an educator, editor, and mentor, including the honor of editing the blog Land of Gazillion Adoptees and the Gazillion Voices online magazine.


At the end of 2020, Shelise rejoined her friend and mentor, Astrid in building and growing Adoption Mosaic LLC. She loves that her position at Adoption Mosaic allows her to connect with all members of the adoption community and brings opportunities to reframe the adoption narrative.


Shelise is an intercountry, South Korean, interracial adoptee. She was adopted as an infant and raised by a white family in Minnesota. She has three siblings who are her parents’ biological children. She has been to Korea to search for her family, but did not find them. In her free time she likes to watch k-dramas, go to taekwondo with her family, and pretend she is going to learn to speak Korean.

Jade Henness

Jade Henness

Conscious Adoption Course Facilitator

(she/her)

Jade is a biracial, domestic infant adoptee from Oregon. She founded the Adoptee Influencer Network and is a TRA educator for a non-profit called Be the Bridge. Her experience growing up in conservative evangelicalism have inspired her to study, write and speak about the themes of adoption in the Christian, Protestant Bible and how that impacts adoptee identity and faith.


Jade is always eager to discuss the intersection of adoptee identity formation with religious and racial/ethnic identities.

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

Not sure if this course is right for you?

Schedule a free meeting with Astrid.