Adoptive mom’s ‘newborn’ photo shoot goes viral
13-year-old’s bittersweet wish for baby photos of himself comes true
"Here's my sweet not so little newborn!" Kelli Higgins wrote on her Facebook page. "His name is Latrell and weighs 112 lbs," as reported this morning by the Today show.
The soft-lit images that accompanied this status update look like they’re straight from an Anne Geddes photo shoot – except the subject is a 13-year-old.
Two years ago, Higgins and her husband adopted Latrell and his sister Chanya, reports TODAY.com.
“These children, once they get past a certain age, they don’t find homes and they age out of foster care,” Higgins, an advocate for adopting older kids, told TODAY.com.
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Sitting around the dinner table last month, the family hatched a creative idea. Higgins, a professional photographer, mentioned an upcoming baby photo shoot. Latrell revealed that he wished he had baby photos of himself.
“I think it’s really hard to have children and not know what they looked like when they were younger,” Higgins told TODAY.com.
The family got a kick out of the idea of recreating a newborn photo shoot for the teen, and the next day Higgins and Latrell headed to her studio to stage and capture a series of angelic images.
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Since the images appeared online, the 13-year-old has become a bit of a cyber-wonder with more than 5,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook and 3,400 comments.
One person wrote: "This is such a beautiful thing to do! I know so many people who adopted older children and don't have ANY pictures of their infancy. What a spectacular way to remedy that... after all, he'll always be your baby."
“The one reaction that is really humbling and I’m really excited about is there have been a lot of parents that come to me telling me that they were thinking about adopting a baby, but after seeing those photos it’s changed their minds and they want to adopt an older child,” Higgins told TODAY.com.
What do you think of Latrell’s ‘baby’ photos? Leave a comment below or share this post.
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