Two years ago Kelli Higgins and her husband adopted two children, a 10 and 5-year old, and recently realized they didn’t have any pictures of them as newborns.
Higgins, who is a photographer, improvised her own solution of sort: she would shoot her now 13-year-old son and recreate a new baby announcement.
Higgins posted the image above on Facebook with the caption, "Here’s my sweet not so little Newborn! His name is Latrell and weighs 112lbs ;)"
The photo has been shared by more than 4,700 people and has 10,000 "likes."
Higgins says she’s happy the photo went viral because she wants other to consider adopting foster care children that are "not so little newborns."
Higgins and her husband adopted Latrell and his sister Chanya two years ago, welcoming the siblings to their home in Crestview, Fla. The family already had five biological children, with a sixth one on the way, but Higgins felt she had more love to give, especially to kids who would have a harder time finding a home because they were older. In the past decade, more older children have become available for adoption, experts say.
"These children, once they get past a certain age, they don’t find homes and they age out of foster care," Higgins told TODAY.com.
"They have to figure out the world on their own and there’s no one to go back to as an adult. Where do you go for Christmas? It’s just horrible, it’s heartbreaking."
Then one day, social services called: Latrell and Chanya, then 10 and 5, were looking for a family. "Let’s just go for it," Higgins recalled her husband saying. A few days later, the kids moved in. The Higgins were the only ones to submit paperwork to adopt the pair, the family found out.