Sandra Bullock is a mom of two amazing children, Laila, 5, and Louis, 8. Both children were adopted, but she doesn’t refer to them that way and doesn’t believe you should either. Bullock is featured in InStyle’s cover story for June 2018. In an interview, she said, “Let’s all just refer to these kids as ‘our kids.’ Don’t say ‘my adopted child.’ No one calls their kid their ‘IVF child’ or their ‘oh, s***, I went to a bar and got knocked-up child.’ Let just say, ‘our children.’”
Bullock has been a long time advocate of adoption. She told InStyle, “Look: I’m all for Republican, Democrat, whatever, but don’t talk to me about what I can or can’t do with my body until you’ve taken care of every child who doesn’t have a home or is neglected or abused. It makes me teary-eyed.”
She admits that adoption can be complicated for a celebrity. The need to hide the children’s identities for a period is a necessity. She recalled, “When you adopt a child, there’s a placement period, and if something goes sideways, they have the right to take the child away. It’s a tenuous, strenuous six months. We had an allergy scare that sent us to the ER, and we were followed by the paparazzi, so the word was out that I had another child. And everyone wanted photos. It was heartbreaking. Louis would hear a helicopter or drone, and he’d run to get his sister and drag her across the lawn and hide her under the trampoline.” Still, the children are worth it.
Nearly 275,000 kids went into foster care in 2016. These kids just want to have families who love them. Bullock’s favorite organization is Alliance for Children’s Rights, a group that gives legal aid and advocacy to kids in need.
