Adoption is a big life decision. After all, you’re taking responsibility for raising a child that you didn’t bear. In many ways, it’s not too different from having your own biological children. In either case, you get to know them, guide them and ultimately just accept them for who they are.

Many old folk are wary of adoption. As they say, “you never know what kind of parents he had” or “it’s unpredictable how they’ll end up.” In fact, there’s still a disturbing stigma surrounding adoption in some places. Some of the misconceptions regarding adoption are still strikingly similar to the very same ones brought up in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables where some characters had a discussion about how an adopted child was likely to burn down the house.

But we all know that Anne in Montgomery’s story turned out to be a wonderful person and, in fact, did not burn the family house. By and large, children who are adopted lead normal lives and respond well to proper nurturing and care.

Nothing speaks of this more than the increasing number of celebrities who have adopted children. Practically all of these celebs find no reason to be ashamed or scared of adoption. They do, in fact, have some really good things to say about it. Here are fifteen adoptive celeb parents and their take on adoption.

15 Sandra Bullock

The Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Sandra Bullock has two adopted children. Back in 2010, the actress and her then-husband James adopted the infant Louis. Bullock continued to care for the boy even after their divorce during the same year. In 2015, Bullock took in another child, a three-year-old girl named Laila.

In an interview by People magazine just after Bullock adopted Laila, Bullock says that "the exact right children came to me at the exact right time.” She had earlier stated that if she had had biological kids, she may not have met these extraordinary children. Everything that happened, she says, must have happened for a reason.

14 Diane Keaton

The award-winning star of Annie Hall and Father of the Bride, Diane Keaton, adopted a pair of children relatively late in life. She first adopted a lovely daughter named Dexter in 1996 when she was 50 years old. Five years later, in 2001, she adopted her son Duke.

In a 2013 interview with Paul Fisher, Keaton has described motherhood as a “completely humbling experience.”

13 Jamie Lee Curtis

The timeless actress of Trading Places and True Lies, Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband Christopher Guest have two adopted children named Annie and Thomas. There isn’t much scoop about their kids as the couple like to keep a private life for their children.

Curtis is quite pragmatic about adoption. She says that "adoption is a very complicated road.” She says that this is because she believes that “adoption is about loss.” True enough, in many cases adoption is about a child who has lost his or her biological parents. In some, it can also be about an adult who wants a child but can’t have one. With this in mind, she considers adoption as a “sacred exchange.” Of her experience with adoption, she says that, “It was not done lightly on either side.”

12 Hugh Jackman

X-Men hottie Hugh Jackman and his wife Deborra-Lee Furness wanted to have kids of their own. However, this proved to be a challenge. "It was painful," Jackman has been quoted as saying when describing the time they were struggling to have kids. After having two miscarriages, the pair decided to go the adoption route.

Jackman and his wife took in Oscar and Ava, children who have completely cured their heartbreak. "I don't think of them as adopted - they're our children," says Jackman.

Jackman and his wife have also been outspoken about the slow and complicated adoption process in Australia. Over the years, the pair has been campaigning for a simplification of these overly rigid adoption laws. Jackman has said in an interview with Guardian Australia that the country still has plenty of “negative connotations about adoption” that need to be addressed.

11 Meg Ryan

The romantic comedy star who has appeared in iconic movies such as Sleepless in Seattle and City of Angels, Meg Ryan, has one adopted daughter, Daisy who she adopted from China as an infant. While Ryan prefers to maintain a private life for her daughter, they have often been spotted walking happily. Ryan also has one biological child named Jack.

Ryan has been quoted saying that motherhood has changed her. “Because it’s so fundamental what you’re doing for another person,” she says in an interview.

10 Viola Davis

In 2011, the critically acclaimed How to Get Away With Murder actress Viola Davis adopted a girl named Genesis. Davis also stands in as a step-mom to husband Julius Tennon’s two sons. Viola has frequently been spotted on the red carpet with her adopted daughter. Genesis has even made an appearance in the movie Get on Up, where Viola plays Susie Brown.

9 Denise Richards

Denise Richards, the 1999 Bond Girl from The World is Not Enough, is also an adoptive mother. While she has two biological daughters with her ex-husband Charlie Sheen, Richards decided to adopt a baby girl in 2011. She has named the child Eloise Joni after her mother who had succumbed to cancer four years prior to the adoption.

8 Katherine Heigl

The Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl and her husband Josh Kelley have adopted two young girls. Their first was Naleigh, who she adopted in 2009 from Korea. Heigl says that this was deliberate. Her adoptive sister, Meg, had come from Korea as well and in a way she wanted her new family to resemble her old one. In 2012, Heigl convinced her husband to adopt again. They had originally wanted to adopt from Korea again but found that the international adoption process had gotten difficult. When they began exploring adopting locally, her lawyer soon called with good news: they had found an expecting mother who had to give her child up for adoption. Soon, the couple became parents to baby Adelaide.

Heigl says she’s always known that she wanted to adopt. She says that she and her husband talked about it long before they were engaged.

7 Charlize Theron

The versatile award-winning star of Mad Max, Charlize Theron, is also an adoptive mother to two children. She took in her son Jackson in 2012 and, later, her daughter August in 2015.

Prior to adoption, Theron has expressed concern for the “many unwanted children.” According to Theron, it is our responsibility as humanity to take care of all its children. This is one of the beliefs that has fueled her desire to proceed with adoption.

6 Ewan McGregor

Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi and later Moulin Rouge actor Ewan McGregor and his wife Eve Mavrakis have four children. Young Jamiyan was adopted from Mongolia in 2006. McGregor reportedly met the girl when she was only two-years old, while he was filming in the area in 2004. The youngest is also said to be adopted, but the actor has not made any details public.

5 Sheryl Crow

Singer and songwriter Sheryl Crow, who just also happens to be a Grammy awardee, is an adoptive mother to two boys. She adopted baby Wyatt in 2007 and, three years later, took in her second son Levi James.

In a 2014 interview with Christian Today, Crow says that she’s told her children that they’re adopted. “But,” she continues, “they also believe, as I do, that God puts us together.”

4 Julie Andrews

Many people don’t know that the iconic Sound of Music star and Princess Diaries queen Julie Andrews adopted two children. Andrews and her late husband Blake Edwards both have children from previous relationships. Together, however, they adopted two daughters, Amy and Joanna who both hail from Vietnam.

They adopted the girls in 1974 and 1975, in the midst of the Vietnam War. Deciding to become a mother lead to a hiatus in Andrews’ career. She says that she had wanted to dedicate her time to raising her daughters.

Andrews has said that she admires women who can balance both family and career. She says that she tried it, but found it difficult and decided to focus her time on family.

3 Cate Blanchett

The gorgeous Cate Blanchett, who has starred in iconic films such as Lord of the Rings and Elizabeth, says that she and her husband Andrew Upton had been planning on adopting for years. They first talked about it soon after their first son was born. And although they would have a total of three biological children over the years, they were able to adopt Edith Vivian Patricia in 2015.

Of this adoption, Blanchett says that she and Upton ultimately decided on it because they felt that they as a couple “had space, enough emotional room in our hearts and we’re privileged enough to have the capacity to have another child.”

2 Michelle Pfeiffer

While the Golden Globe winning actress of Scarface and Hairspray fame prefers to keep her kids well within private life, she has often talked about her daughter Claudia Rose who she adopted in 1993. She adopted the baby just before her marriage to David E. Kelley. A year later, the couple would also have a biological son.

In an interview with People magazine, Pfeiffer says that she wanted her girl to be a “really independent, outspoken young woman” and added that she “sure got that!”

1 Steven Spielberg

The iconic director of Schindler’s List, E.T. and Jurassic Park has 7 children with wife Kate Capshaw. Two of these children are from previous relationships and another two, Theo and Mikaela, are adopted.

Incidentally, Theo and one of Spielberg and Capshaw’s biological daughters, Sasha, have been playing music together for quite some time. In 2015, they released their own album called Love/Idleness under the band name Wardell. Wardell is Theo’s middle name and also happens to be the nickname of their mother.