Katherine Heigl and Husband Adopting a Girl

Katherine Heigl and Husband Adopting a Girl

By JOYCE ENG

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Ellen Pompeo isn't the only mom-to-be on the Grey's Anatomy set: Katherine Heigl and her husband, musician Josh Kelley, are adopting a baby girl.

"It is a little girl and she'll be 10 months at the end this month," Heigl said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in an episode to air Friday. "She was actually born the day before me in November, which I thought was really serendipitous and just kind of like a sign. I realized just recently that I basically forfeited my birthday for the rest of my life."

See who else became a parent this year

The baby will be named Naleigh — a hybrid of the names of Heigl's mother and sister, Nancy and Leigh — and is from Korea. Heigl's sister, Meg, was adopted from Korea.

"We started talking about adoption even before we were engaged because it's really important to me," Heigl said. "It's been a big part of my life and my family. My sister is Korean and my parents adopted her back in the '70s and so I just always knew that this is something I wanted to do."

Heigl, who will take a five-episode break from Grey's to shoot a her film Life As We Know It, said she and Kelley started the adoption process a year ago and received information on Naleigh, whom they have not yet met, six months ago.

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"She is a special needs baby and because of that it all moved so much faster. They wanted to get her to us as quickly as possible," Heigl said. "Which is why I wanted to tell everybody, so you don't think I stole a Korean baby."

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