The Hollywood star, Sandra Bullock, is quite private and prefers to keep her children out of the spotlight, but she recently opened up about parenting. Bullock, who is now 57, was already a mom to adopted son Louis (12) when she decided to adopt daughter Laila, who is now 10. She discussed the challenges and difficulties she and her kids endured through the adoption process, but also shared the wonderful side of being a parent.

We at Bright Side are always moved and inspired by successful adoption stories, so we decided to dig deeper and know more.

In 2010, Bullock and her then-husband, Jesse James, started the adoption process for their first child, Louis. However, the couple divorced soon after, but the actress continued the process as a single parent. Bullock adopted Louis when he was just 3½ months old: “He’s just perfect, I can’t even describe him any other way,” Bullock said back then. “It’s like he’s always been a part of our lives,” she added.

Soon after, she met her current partner, photographer Bryan Randall, whose personality and parenting support she praises. In 2015, she went on to adopt another child, a daughter, Laila, who was 3 years old at the time. She explains that the idea to adopt the girl was her own, and her boyfriend was ’’scared but so happy.’’ Though the couple “hadn’t been together long” when Laila’s adoption was finalized, the actress recalled Randall stepping up as a parental figure at the time.

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The actress openly talked about the challenges of raising a traumatized child who had been in 3 separate foster care homes before being adopted by Bullock. The toll it took on the girl was evident from the very beginning: ’’I saw triggers happening on a daily basis,’’ Bullock said. She would hide inside the closet, pretend to leave, or hide food, and it was obvious that the child was afraid of abandonment.

But Bullock made sure her daughter knew that she’d always be there for her: ’’She’d say, ’I’m leaving you.’ And I’m like, ’Okay, I’m going to be right behind you. So just know that you can leave but I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere,’” she said. She admits that raising a child with trauma wasn’t easy. The actress was required to undergo evaluation before the adoption, and she had to take classes on how to parent a traumatized child.

Still, Bullock feels it was all worth it: ’’When I look at Laila, there was no doubt in my mind that she was supposed to be here,’’ the actress confessed. She also talked about how her partner, Randall, was not involved in the adoption of her 2 children but is extremely supportive.

When describing how her kids view her, Bullock says, ’’I’m just the mom. When I’m gone, I’m missed, when I’m there, I’m annoying, and that’s exactly the way it should be.” But she doesn’t hide how proud she is of her children: ’’I love who they are. Every day I get to see who they are. I am one of the lucky individuals that get to be around my children all the time and see who they get to grow up and be. And who they’re growing up to be, I couldn’t be more proud of.”

Do you think raising adopted children is much different than having biological offspring? Let’s talk about it in the comments.