Sandra Bullock talks about Katrina, adoption

NEW ORLEANS -- For Oscar winner Sandra Bullock, it's been a year of tremendous highs and lows.

But, the actress said the city of New Orleans has given her new priorities in life: her adopted son and her charity work with a Katrina-ravaged charter school.

She spoke about both of them to the Today Show's Matt Lauer.

It's a school that's given Sandra Bullock a new sense of purpose. The Warren Easton Charter School suffered $4 million in damage during Hurricane Katrina.

When Bullock heard about it, she went to bat and called school board member Arthur Hardy. Her time and money have brought what is the oldest public high school in Louisiana back to life.

"Right here under this roof there are souls and spirits and young people who don't come from any money, but carry this extraordinary spirit to like override that, suck in every ounce of education that school provides, and get out of here and create a life for them that is beautiful and fulfilling," said Bullock.

But, the city has also given her someone to share her life with: her 8-month adopted son Louie, who was born in New Orleans.

"No one understands the shift in priorities about having a child in your life, that you are responsible for until you have a child in your life. It just naturally shifts. It just shifted the first day I met him, and it was like he'd been there the whole time, yet everything was different,” said Bullock.

Everything seems to be different now for the 46-year-old actress. She planned to raise her adopted son with her husband, biker Jesse James, but his infidelity led to a divorce in June.

Bullock didn't address the breakup, but did talk about how during all that publicity, she managed to keep her adoption a secret.

"I have friends and family that are filled with massive amounts of integrity. It shouldn't be an oddity,” said Bullock.

Bullock went on to say she never wanted to receive special treatment during the adoption process because of her celebrity status. It took her four years to go through the process and she wanted to do it the same way everyone else did.

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