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'If It Wasn’t For Adoption, I Wouldn’t Have My Family': Sandra Bullock On Why More People Should Consider It

Through her new film, The Unforgivable, she hopes to start a conversation about the importance of adoption and foster care.

Source: Getty Images/Alberto E. Rodriguez / Stringer

Sandra Bullock is indeed America's sweetheart. She has shared the importance of adoption, foster care, and what family means. Through her new film, The Unforgivable, she hopes to start a conversation about the same.

The film follows Ruth Slater, a woman who has been released from prison. She has to now re-enter and assimilate into a society that won't forgive her because she is a woman convicted of murder. She searches for the little sister she was forced to leave behind as she tries to put her life back together again. The Netflix film was released in November and Bullock has been praised for playing such a memorable role.



 

In real life, the Oscar-winner has two children both through adoption. Her first child, Louis, was adopted in 2010. The adoption process was started when she was still married to ex-husband Jesse James, whom she divorced later but went ahead with the adoption process for her son. In 2015 she revealed that she had adopted another child, this time a daughter, Laila. She was three at the time of adoption and had been through three foster care systems. They are now 11 and eight respectively.



 

“If it wasn’t for adoption and foster care, I wouldn’t have my family, so this film really struck a chord in that there are millions upon millions of babies and children on this planet that have no one to love— that have no one to let them know they are the most amazing thing when they walk in a room," Bullock explained on Wednesday’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. “There are millions upon millions of adults that wish they could be a parent.” She also pointed out the hesitancy for adoption unless the caretakers are gay or single and said, "Love is love," and added, "If we stop defining that narrative is just one avenue...the amazing impact would be love and families and health and mental health."



 

Her stance on adoption has remained the same and even when she adopted Laila she had said, "There are so many kids out there who so badly want to have families. What’s heartbreaking is that some of these kids don’t get love. It’s our duty to help.” Last week Bullock appeared on Red Table Talk and opened up about her daughter's trauma in the foster care system. "I had my kids in my [walk-in] closet with their little beds because I was so afraid to not have them super close to me," Bullock explained. "And I would walk in and I wouldn't be able to find her. She'd be in the closet, with all her clothes on, she'd be on a bookshelf, she'd be hiding and she'd always be ready to leave. She was always telling me she was leaving."



 

She was reassured by her current partner, photographer Bryan Randall. “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,” she shared. “You love by leaning in and hugging and holding and letting them know that you aren't going anywhere.” The 57-year-old actress added, "[Foster care] is a system that exists and people don't know about it because it's a difficult thing to talk about. It gets deep and it gets dark. When I first went into the process myself, you have to prove that you're a capable parent — you're in the judgment cage. And I got halfway through it and I said, 'I can't do this.'"