Actress Sharon Stone Adopts Grandparents

One Hollywood star, who experienced the joy of adopting a child, decided to adopt a second time. Only this time, she didn’t adopt a baby; she adopted great-grandparents for her baby.

Actress Sharon Stone and her now ex-husband, Phil Bronstein, adopted their son, Roan, in 2000. Sharon marveled at how much she loved this baby with whom she wasn’t biologically connected. So she carried adoption one step further, by informally adopting grandparents for herself and her son. “We should be able to adopt adults into our lives as well as children,” says Sharon, in the July 2003 issue of Good Housekeeping.

Sharon met Eileen Mitzman at an AIDS fund-raising event and was struck by Eileen’s warm, loving demeanor. One day, Sharon (whose biological grandparents are dead) visited the Mitzmans at their apartment and asked them if she could adopt them as her grandparents. “They were a little incredulous at first, I think. But I told them I really meant it; I wanted them to be my family,” says Sharon.

The Mitzmans agreed, and Sharon's family has since fully embraced them – the Mitzmans even walked down the aisle as grandparents at Sharon's sister's wedding.

Sharon’s willingness to adopt grandparents demonstrates that she grasps a key concept about adoption: it doesn’t matter who your child belongs to; what matters is who belongs to your child. Sharon filled a hole in her son’s life by finding people to belong to him.

Adapted from Laura Christianson's upcoming book, What's So Great About Adoption? A Self-Guided Tour for the Uninitiated (available August 1, 2007, Harvest House Publishers).

Related Posts About Sharon Stone:

Celebrities Adopting   

Sharon Stone Discusses Adoption

Sharon Stone Adopts Third Child

Note to readers (Nov 20, 2006): There has been a sudden, intense interest in this post. Where are you all coming from? Please comment or email me, and thanks for visiting!

Comments

[sster]

The cynical me is trying to find something sinister about this, but I just can't. I honestly never thought about adopting one another as adults. This happened rather informally for us growing up, but we never called it adoption. What a great story!

[Monica]

Hey great to see your blog highlighted on the Typepad home page! How exciting for you :). Congrats!

[Grandma]

When our first grandson was adopted by his family, I guess we were inadvertently "adopted" as grandparents to their first adopted son. It has been a wonderful relationship!

[Susan Lucas]

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof. - Richard Bach

I find myself at life's halfway mark with a family assembled in bits and pieces along the way--few of them blood relatives. These easy, selective relationships lift and nurture me, and I am so grateful. Grandparents? Bring them on!

[Donna]

My 9 yo son's grandmother just passed away and I'm now starting the process of adopting grandparents. This was my 1st step and what an "encouragement". My husband died when my son was 2 and being an "only" child doesn't mean he has to be a "lonely" child. My journey may be a long one, however, one I'm definately ready to begin.