When it comes to becoming a parent, there are so many paths. Although some people have their children biologically, many choose to adopt — including celebrity parents. Even though it may not include pregnancy, adoption comes with a lot of ups and downs, and that's something that celebs like Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron have been open about when discussing the way they expanded their family, but more than anything, we hear a lot about how meaningful that process has been and how happy they are to have done it.
It's an incredible, wonderful thing to become a loving parent to a child who needs one, especially with all the challenges that must be overcome along the way. But as these celeb moms and dads will happily tell anyone who will listen, it's a decision they are so grateful to have made, because the love between them and their children is so real.
In celebration of National Adoption Month, here is what 15 celebrities have said about what adopting their children means to them. The journey can definitely be a difficult one, but the destination is always worth it.
Katherine Heigl
Katherine and husband Josh Kelley have adopted two of their children — Naleigh, 12, and Adalaide, 8 — and as she said in an interview with Scholastic, her parents adopting her sister made her sure it was something she wanted to pursue when she grew up and had a family of her own.
"Anyone who doesn't have experience with adoption wonders, does love for a child come through DNA? I knew it didn't," Katherine revealed. "My mother had biological children and an adopted child and said it made absolutely no difference. They're yours. You love them the moment they're put into your arms."
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee and husband Christopher Guest adopted their daughter, Annie, in an open adoption in 1986, and added son Tom to their family in 1996. Jamie Lee told PACT that her adoptions were taken very seriously on all sides.
"We look at adoption as a very sacred exchange," she said. "It was not done lightly on either side. I would dedicate my life to this child."
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has adopted three of her six children, so it goes without saying that it's something she's very passionate about. In an interview with Vogue India, Angelina opened up about what adoption means to her, saying:
"All adopted children come with a beautiful mystery of a world that is meeting yours. When they are from another race and foreign land, that mystery, that gift, is so full. For them, they must never lose touch with where they came from. They have roots that you do not. Honour them. Learn from them. It’s the most amazing journey to share. They are not entering your world, you are entering each other’s worlds."
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock has adopted two of her children, and in an interview on The Today Show, she shared the reality of waiting four years for her son, Louis.
"The beautiful thing that I was constantly told was, 'The perfect child will find you. You will find your child,'” she said on the show, via Simplemost. "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."
Nicole Kidman
Nicole's adult children from her previous marriage to Tom Cruise, Connor and Isabella, were adopted, and in an interview with Town & Country, she spoke about loving and supporting her kids.
"It's not about anything else other than, 'I wanted you.' It's that deep and personal, and whatever your journey is, I'm here to love and support you," she said.
Mariska Hargitay
Two of Mariska's three children with husband Peter Hermann are adopted, and while talking to Good Housekeeping about her adoption journey — and the baby who was almost hers until their birth mother changed her mind — she admitted how difficult it can be.
"I'm not gonna lie. There were wrenching moments," she said. "I say to everybody, 'Adoption is not for the faint of heart.'"
Connie Britton
In an essay that Connie wrote for Time about her son, Eyob, she wrote:
"What is miraculous about the parent/child relationship somehow still leaves a catch in my throat when I think about both of our journeys to find each other. I am grateful to my son for finding me. I am grateful to his birth mother for her fortitude in bearing him and her suffering in letting him go. I am grateful for my life as a mother."
Lauren Akins
Lauren Akins and husband Thomas Rhett adopted their daughter, Willa Gray, who they'd met during a trip to Uganda. As Lauren said on The Kelly Clarkson Show, she knew that she wanted to find Willa a home, but later she and Thomas realized that home should be with them.
"The second I touched her, it was electric. I was like, 'Oh, this little girl has just taken my heart,'" she said. "And I was like, 'Honey, we've got to find her her forever home. Like, I know that’s why I'm here — to get this girl to her home.'"
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness adopted their children, Ava and Oscar, and in an interview with People, Hugh talked about why it never mattered to them that their kids look like them. He said:
"A lot of people go into [adoption thinking] it's really important to them for the kid to look like them, and honestly, for Deb and I, that just never even was an issue. I believe in life and I want to tell my kids that your personality is interesting, it in some way very much defines you, the color of your skin, whether you’re a male, whether you're a female, but that’s not who you really are. What really defines you is beneath all that."
Viola Davis
Viola adopted her daughter, Genesis, in 2011, and she told InStyle that being a mother is so much more than carrying a child and giving birth.
"There are so many ways to mother rather than to carry a child in your body. So many children need parents, and so many of us want to mother," she said. "Know that you will experience motherhood to the full extent."
Madonna
Of Madonna's six children, four — David, Mercy, Estere, and Stella — are adopted, and she told People that it was practically love at first sight when she saw her children for the first time.
"It's like saying, 'Why do you fall in love with the people you fall in love with?' You look into the eyes of somebody, you feel their soul, you feel touched by them — that's it," she said.
Charlize Theron
Charlize, who adopted two children of her own, told Elle:
"Adoption is a very personal thing — I know people whom I love dearly who don't feel that they could raise another child as their own. I respect that. But for me — and I can't be the only person out there — I never saw a difference in raising an adopted child versus my own biological child. I don’t feel like I'm missing out on something. This was always my first choice, even when I was in a relationship. I was very honest with my partners that I was open to having my own biological kids but that adoption had to be a part of my life. I felt that strongly about it."
Meg Ryan
Meg adopted her daughter, Daisy, from China in 2006, and told People she feels no difference in the love she has for her from the love she has for her biological son. She said:
"I am convinced, completely convinced that there was nothing random about it. She is the daughter I should have. I never felt like I was on a rescue mission or anything like that. I just really wanted a baby; I was on a mission to connect with somebody, and Daisy and I got to meet each other this way at this time. We are so compatible. And also having the experience of having had Jack and now to have Daisy in a different way — there's no difference in the love you feel."
Sharon Stone
According to People, in 2017, Sharon spoke about adopting her three sons — Quinn, Laird, and Roan — when she won the Mother of the Year award at the Associates For Breast and Prostate Cancer Studies (ABCs) Mother's Day Luncheon. She said, "motherhood didn't come easily, but it came lovingly to me by angels."
Hoda Kotb
Hoda has adopted both of her daughters, Haley and Hope, after her battle with cancer made her unable to conceive children naturally. She told People that her daughter Haley, who she adopted first, was a "puzzle piece that just snapped in. I felt it. It was as if she had been with me forever."
