In 2010, Sandra Bullock received a phone call that changed her life forever. “Your placement is here,” said the voice on the other end.
A few weeks later, she was on a stage, accepting her first Oscar for her appearance in The Blind Side, but she didn’t care she was there. “All I wanted was to go was just go home and feed Lou” she said of her newborn, whom she had been waiting for years to arrive.
Keep reading to learn more about this incredible actor and what inspired her to adopt two children!
In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana by flooding its grounds, Sandra Bullock had a feeling that inspired her decision to adopt a child.
“Katrina happened in New Orleans, and something told me, ‘My child is there.’ It was weird,” Bullock said in an interview with Today’s Hoda Kotb.
Years later, in January 2010, Bullock received the call she had been waiting years to receive.
Years later, in January 2010, Bullock received the call she had been waiting 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 after having filed it, years,” the 59-year-old star of Speed tells CBS News.
Little Lou
Gushing over Louis Bardo Bullock, the three-month-old boy from New Orleans she secretly adopted in 2010, Bullock said, “I looked at him like, ‘Oh, there you are.’ It was like he had always been there,” she recalled. “He fit in the crook of my arm. He looked me in the eyes. He was wise. My child was wise.”
The Miss Congeniality star adds, “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.”
Weeks after Lou arrived, Bullock was on stage at the Kodiak Theatre, accepting her first Oscar for her starring role in the film, The Blind Side.
But Lou owned her center stage and she wanted to be at home, with him.
“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.”
Only days after, her marriage to reality star Jesse James came crashing down and Bullock became a single mother to an infant.
Bullock said, “I mean, 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.”
‘Louis’ got the stage’
“No one understands the shift in priorities about having a child in your life … until you have a child in your life,” Bullock said of shifting her focus from career to mom. “It naturally shifts…he showed up and now, Louis’ got the stage.”
Growing up in a healthy, happy environment, little Lou one day looked up at mom and predicted “I’m going to have a baby soon.”
Though Bullock admits she wasn’t planning on growing her family, she listened to her son, who planted the seed.
“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,” Bullock said. “It’s Louis’ way. Louis has a very strong way. He’s a fine leader, and he led me to Lai.”
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.’”
He was right. Recently, Bullock described Laila 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, now 13, “is super sensitive…He’s wise and kind,” the Bird Box star tells People. “I saw that when they handed him to me. There was a spiritual bigness to him.”
Though fans will be disappointed, the versatile actor is scaling back her work schedule to again be a single mother.
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.
What do you think of Sandra Bullock and her little family? Please share your thoughts with us and then share this story so we can hear what others have to say!
Serena Williams and family reportedly denied entry to French restaurant, hotel forced to issue apology
After it was claimed that former American tennis player Serena Williams was refused access to the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, a posh Parisian hotel was compelled to issue an apology to Williams and her family.
“Hell no, @peninsulaparis I’ve been turned away from better establishments’ rooftops where I would have liked to eat, but never with my children. X Monday, Williams wrote, “Always a first.”
Since the beginning of the 2024 Olympics, Williams, 42, has been in Paris with her spouse Alexis Ohanian and their two daughters, Olympia, 6, and Adira, 10 months.
The four-time gold medallist at the Olympics participated in the torch relay this year, which carried the torch from the Seine to the Olympic Cauldron. Nadia Comăneci, Carl Lewis, and Rafael Nadal joined her throughout her section.
Williams tried to eat at the rooftop restaurant of the Peninsula Paris, a five-star hotel with a view of the Eiffel Tower, after more than a week of games.
Williams, however, stated that despite what she described as a “empty restaurant,” she and her family were refused admittance when they arrived.
The Peninsula Paris extended their support to as many fans as possible.
Greetings, Mrs. WilliamsWe sincerely apologize for the disappointment you had this evening. The hotel’s answer was, “Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was in fact fully booked and the only empty tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved.”
They said, “It has always been an honor to welcome you, and it will always be to welcome you again.”
Many are unclear of how to interpret the hotel’s reaction, even if Williams has not yet responded. “You set up a table for her,” exclaimed some, while “She ought to apologize to your team,” held the opinion of others.
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