Blue Bloods star Vanessa Ray and her husband Landon Beard are now the proud parents of a baby boy.
The 42-year-old actress, who plays Eddie Reagan, revealed that she and her husband welcomed their son via adoption in November 2023.
"Isaac Ray Beard was born on November 7th and he kind of came into our life, it was quite a whirlwind," she told People.
Vanessa revealed that she and Landon "weren't totally sure if we were going to have kids" or if it "made sense" for them, but following a day at work, she realized she wanted to grow her family.
She explained: "I was at work one day, honestly I was about to do a family dinner and I just had this overwhelming sensation of family and what I love about our life and all of these things."
Calling her husband in tears, Vanessa said she told him: "I think we're supposed to be parents" and "I think we're supposed to adopt."
After deciding to adopt, Vanessa was advised by her friend and costar, Bridget Moynahan, to speak to Peter Hermann, who adopted two of his kids, son Andrew and daughter Amaya, with his wife, Mariska Hargitay.
"Graciously, he really held our hand and walked us through everything that we would need to know about adoption," Vanessa recalled.
"It's a lot of first dates almost. It almost feels like there's a ton of heartbreak that comes along with it."
While it took about a year for the couple to find an attorney and prepare paperwork, the process moved quickly after that, and less than two weeks later, they were on a plane to meet Issac's birth mother – who was due to give birth to him four weeks later.
"It went super-fast," she shared. "She was like, 'He's due in four weeks, so we have to do this quickly.' We were like, 'Whoa, okay.'"
But they didn't even have the month to prepare because Issac arrived one week earlier than his due date.
Vanessa added: "It all happened in three weeks, really from zero to three weeks. Then we were bringing him out and it was incredible."
The couple have a good support system though as once the adoption was confirmed, their friends rallied around to create a makeshift nursery in just 24 hours.
"I'm not kidding you, in 24 hours we had a makeshift nursery put together. A crib, pacifiers, bottles, Baby Brezza, all the things," Vanessa said.
"We had everything that we needed from our friends. We didn't have to buy anything. We really didn't right away, at least for the first three months."
Vanessa admitted that the transition into parenthood has gone smoother than she expected because Issac just is "like his mama. He loves to sleep and he loves to eat".
She added: "We're just so focused on him right now. And just showering him with love and trying to absorb every single moment we can of his just littleness, his little life."
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