In 2010, Sandra Bullock got a phone call that changed everything. “Your placement is here,” said the voice on the other end. This meant that the child she had been waiting for was ready for her.
A few weeks later, Sandra was on stage, accepting her first Oscar for her role in The Blind Side. But her mind wasn’t on the award. “All I wanted was to go home and feed Lou,” she said, talking about her newborn son. She had been waiting for years to become a mom.
Let’s find out more about Sandra Bullock, an amazing actress, and what led her to adopt two children!
In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina caused massive flooding in Louisiana, Sandra felt something deep inside her. This feeling guided her decision to adopt.
“Katrina happened in New Orleans, and something told me, ‘My child is there.’ It was weird,” Sandra shared in an interview with Hoda Kotb on Today.
This was the beginning of her journey to adopt and raise her two beloved children.
In January 2010, Sandra Bullock got a phone call she had been waiting for years to receive. “He was unexpected, he was not planned. I got a call one day, ‘Your placement is here,’ and that’s after years of having filed it, years,” the 59-year-old Speed star told CBS News.
Sandra was overjoyed when she met Louis Bardo Bullock, the three-month-old boy from New Orleans she secretly adopted. She gushed, “I looked at him like, ‘Oh, there you are.’ It was like he had always been there.”
She felt an instant connection with Louis. “He fit in the crook of my arm. He looked me in the eyes. He was wise. My child was wise,” she recalled warmly.
Sandra’s journey to becoming a mother was long, but meeting Louis made it all worthwhile.
Sandra Bullock, known for her role in Miss Congeniality, shared a touching story about becoming a mom. “The beautiful thing that I was constantly told was, ‘The perfect child will find you. You will find your child.’ But you don’t believe that when it’s not happening. When you’re going, ‘Where is my family?’ When it does happen, you know exactly what they’re talking about.”
Just weeks after adopting her son Lou, Sandra was on stage at the Kodak Theatre, accepting her first Oscar for her role in The Blind Side.
Despite the excitement of winning an Oscar, her thoughts were all about Lou. “All I kept thinking about was, ‘He’s at home.’ Like, I didn’t care. I didn’t care that I was there, I just wanted to go home. And then I was sewn in the dress. I was sewn in the dress, and I had to get myself out of the dress, but all I wanted to do was just go home and feed Lou.”
Shortly after this joyous event, her marriage to reality star Jesse James ended, and Sandra became a single mother to her infant son.
Sandra Bullock faced a challenging time when she adopted her son, Lou, while also dealing with personal grief. “So much had happened. How do you process grief and not hurt your child in the process? It’s a newborn, they take on everything that you’re feeling. So, my obligation was to [Lou] and not tainting the first year of his life with my grief,” she explained.
Becoming a mom changed Sandra’s priorities. “No one understands the shift in priorities about having a child in your life … until you have a child in your life,” she said. “It naturally shifts…he showed up and now, Louis’ got the stage.”
As Lou grew up in a happy and healthy environment, he once looked up at Sandra and said, “I’m going to have a baby soon.” Even though Sandra wasn’t planning to expand her family, she listened to her son’s prediction.
“I realized at that time, maybe he knew something. And when I think about it, it would have been around the time that Laila was born,” Sandra shared. “It’s Louis’ way. Louis has a very strong way. He’s a fine leader, and he led me to Lai.”
This journey led Sandra to adopt her daughter, Laila, adding more joy to their family.
Laila, who was living in foster care in Louisiana, is her daughter who joined the family in 2015 when she was three.
Recalling Laila’s trauma from being in childcare, the Ocean’s 8 star said, “She’d be in the closet with all her clothes on, she’d be on a bookshelf, she’d be hiding, she’d always be ready to leave,” the actress recalled of her daughter, adding that she always made sure Laila knew that she wasn’t “going anywhere.”
She then shared a conversation she had about Laila with Bryan Randall, the father figure to her children, and her partner from 2015 until ALS claimed his life in 2023. She said, “My partner said to me, ‘When she’s been with us longer than she hasn’t been, I have a feeling we’re going to see a change.’”
Sandra Bullock recently talked about her daughter, Laila, describing her as “unafraid.” “She’s a fighter, and that’s the reason she’s here today. She fought to keep her spirit intact. Oh my God, what she is going to accomplish. She’s going to bring some real change.”
Lou, who is now 13, has a different but equally special personality. “He’s super sensitive…He’s wise and kind,” Sandra told People. “I saw that when they handed him to me. There was a spiritual bigness to him.”
Sandra, known for her roles in films like Bird Box, has decided to scale back her work schedule to focus on being a single mother again. While fans may miss seeing her on screen as often, Sandra’s priority is to be there for her children.
Bullock last appeared in 2022’s The Lost City with Channing Tatum and Bullet Train with Brad Pitt.
“I can be creative, I can be part of a community, but right now, work in front of the camera needs to take a pause,” she said.
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