The aim of this case study is to discuss the experience of a divorced couple with biological children, who made a late adoption. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through the theoretical framework of Winnicott's psychoanalysis. The results showed that, three years after the divorce, the participants adopted an adolescent, highlighting altruism as their motivation. In terms of the emotional maturation of the couple, it was noted that they renewed the preexisting strong relationship through the exercise of adoptive parenthood and the "desire to help" the adolescent through his inclusion in a nuclear family. In the statements of the parents, it could be seen that the notion of family transcends the idea of a simple traditional nuclear arrangement constituted around the couple, since conjugality was not mentioned as a condition that effected the adoption. In contrast, conjugality was valued as a condition in the birth of their first biological child, showing that different meanings are attributed to biological and adoptive parenting.
Late adoption; Parenting; Psychoanalysis; Marital relations