Sandra Bullock's Viral Post On Adoption Inspires Others To Share Their Stories

The world is full of opinions, especially when it comes to parenting. It’s not surprising that someone as famous as Sandra Bullock has received some backlash for her personal choices. If the internet has taught us anything it’s that people love to hurl judgments from the safety and anonymity of their computer screens.

She decided to address the opinion that her adopted son Louis is “not her child” in a beautiful Facebook post she shared last night about family, love, destiny, and raising kids.

She says:

“I hold my son in my arms and thank God for bringing him to me. If the standard route for creating a family had worked for me, I wouldn’t have met this child. I needed to know him. I needed to be his mother. I know now why all those events happened. Or didn’t happen. So I could meet this little boy. He is, in every way, my son.

I enjoy Motherhood now. If all of a sudden someone said, ‘You have five more kids,’ I’d be totally OK with it.

So guys Share this if you love your Children who are very lucky to have you and to have a beautiful home. Lets hope that Everybody reads this especially those who consider adoption as a taboo and are against it. It’s perfectly fine to adopt. It is a gift of Life. The desire of your heart can give a child a home.”

The post inspired the most amazing chain of events: people took Sandra’s lead and began posting images of their families and telling their stories. Sandra’s words morphed into the most beautiful photo essay about love, family, and parenting. Here are some of the images and stories…

The images and shared stories just keep rolling in.

From the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute:

“In the U.S. 397,122 children are living without permanent families in the foster care system. 101,666 of these children are eligible for adoption, but nearly 32% of these children will wait over three years in foster care before being adopted.

Around the world, there are an estimated 153 million orphans who have lost one parent. There are 17,900,000 orphans who have lost both parents and are living in orphanages or on the streets and lack the care and attention required for healthy development. These children are at risk for disease, malnutrition, and death.”

Adoption is an incredible gift for parents and children. You don’t have to share blood to be a family. One of the commenters on Bullock’s post summed it up perfectly:

“One of my four children is adopted… I forget which one.”