Actress Nia Vardalos received the best gift possible just in time for Mother’s Day. According to reports, she recently spoke about the joy she experienced when her 3-year-old adopted daughter came into her life. In an interview with People.com, Vardalos story is sure to touch a lot of people whether they are adoptive parents or not. Vardalos and her husband Ian Gomez made the addition to their family late last year, but she chose the fitting occasion of Mother’s Day to share her story.

The website quotes the actress as saying, “After years of wanting to be parents, my husband and I were given 14 hours notice … then a little girl walked into our house.” She continued, “One night, the phone rang. The social worker told me we’d been matched with a 3-year-old girl.” The couple had to hurriedly prepare for the arrival of the daughter they had wanted for so long. In fact they didn’t even have much time to let their families in on the news.

After that life changing phone call, they were to get their daughter the very next day. “There wasn’t a baby shower, there wasn’t time to discuss with family and friends, there was no way to really prepare for her arrival.” In the interview she also revealed that the first time she took her daughter to church, the priest offered up a special prayer for her. She was brought to tears when he said, “Today you have given birth to your daughter.”

In the interview Vardalos talked about the difficult path to motherhood. Many people might think that as a celebrity she would have had it easy. Madonna for example seemed to get though her first adoption process relatively quickly. At any rate this is a reminder that even for celebrities, some things just have to run their normal course. Vardalos joins a host of celebrities who have gone the adoption route. These include Hugh Jackman, Sharon Stone, and Mia Farrow.

Vardalos was a little known actress until Rita Wilson, wife of Tom Hanks caught her play and they ended up turning it into the smash hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. She and Gomez have been married since 1993.

In closing I will leave you with words from Vardalos herself who summed up pretty well what many first time parents probably feel. “All the grief, all the anger, all the angst at the difficult and long journey to parenthood. And that outpouring of tears was quickly followed by a peaceful gratefulness,” she said.