In the first season of How to Buy a Baby, viewers met Jane (Meghan Heffern) and Charlie (Marc Bendavid), a young couple struggling to get pregnant. From hormone injections to faulty testes and uterine walls, How to Buy a Baby opened the door to hilarity and much-needed openess about infertility.

Jane and Charlie are back for a second season—dropping on CBC Gem on August 23—tackling the next logical step in their journey: adoption.

“This is based on my own experiences and I wanted to portray things as authentically as I could,” says Wendy Litner, How to Buy a Baby‘s creator. “Because my husband and I moved on to adoption that seemed like the logical next step.” Litner—who has written for The Globe and Mail penned a blog for Today’s Parent about How to Buy a Baby.

“I really felt like I connected with Wendy and the subject matter,” Heffern says during a recent phone call. “And I really loved the idea of playing a normal woman. In some of the other roles I’ve had I’ve played sci-fi villains or very heightened versions of a normal person. It was exciting to play someone grounded in reality.”

In the first instalment of Season 2, Jane and Charlie are stressing over an upcoming visit from an adoption agency worker. But before that, Charlie runs through a questionaire they need to answer. Among the queries: will they accept a baby that was the result of a rape or incest? Once Stan (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll) arrives things escalate. He has his own questions and suggestions about how Jane and Charlie can improve their chances at adopting a baby, namely ensuring Christmas happens despite Charlie being Jewish. Outrageous? Yes. But, they are exactly the questions Litner and her husband were asked during their adoption process.

“I was actually shocked by the questions when we were filling out the questionnaire,” Litner recalls. “How often did we have sex? I mean, what is the right answer to that?! It was so jarring and they delve so deep into every aspect of your life.

“Although, you are getting a child, so I can understand why they want to make sure your electrical outlets are up to code.”

How to Buy a Baby is streaming on CBC Gem.

Image courtesy of LoCo Motion Pictures.