It usually takes several hours to capture those snuggly cute photos of fussy newborns. But photographer Kelli Higgins managed to snap sweet pictures of her son Latrell in around 10 minutes.
That’s because her “baby” is 13 years old.
“Here’s my sweet not so little newborn!” Kelli wrote on Facebook. “His name is Latrell and weighs 112 lbs ;)”
Kelli and her husband, Daniel Higgins, adopted Latrell and his younger sister, Chanya, two years ago, even though they already had five biological children and were pregnant with their sixth. Kelli, who lives in Crestview, Fla., always knew she wanted to adopt children out of the foster care system. When she saw photos of the siblings, she fell in love.
“They were just absolutely beautiful,” Higgins told the New York Daily News. “There they were, standing in front of a camera with forced smiles, taking pictures so that someone would adopt them. My heart just broke for them.”
Two years later, the Higgins’ house is a whirlwind of noise. With eight children, Kelli said that the Higgins have been through plenty of ups and downs, but overall, it’s been a happy transition.
Her family of 10 was sitting down to dinner last month when Kelli, a professional photographer, mentioned a newborn photo session that she was scheduled to shoot.
Latrell’s mind went immediately to his own past.
“I never got newborn photos,” he said.
The Higgins’ 12-year-old daughter joked, “So why don’t you do them now?”
The family sat around the table for some time, laughing about all the silly baby poses that Latrell would need to come up with.
The next day, Kelli took on the challenge. She’s done plenty of newborn shoots before, so she knew exactly how to pose her son. She usually wraps babies in little blankets, but Latrell was a bit too big for that prop. So Kelli used one of her scarves. She showcased Latrell’s feet by putting him in her 2-year-old’s leg warmers.
The photos were a big hit with her children, who were falling over each other with laughter during the shoot. And Latrell? He’s not embarrassed in the slightest. Kelli said her son is a pretty funny guy who loves dressing up to make his family laugh.
“On his very first visit to our house, Latrell raided our family’s costume closet,” Kelli said. “He dressed up in all these random clothes and ran out. That’s when we knew he was right for us.”
Kelli’s “newborn” photoshoot now has more than 6,000 “likes” on Facebook. She’s happy about the positive reactions.
Facebook user Kelli Jackson said that she loved the Higgins’ idea.
“Both of my kids are adopted,” she wrote, “I don’t have any newborn pictures of either of them … Great idea and great family you have there!”
Some of Latrell’s fans are now considering adopting older children.
“The most amazing reaction is from people writing me on Facebook saying that they were going to adopt a newborn but are now thinking about finding an older child,” Kelli said.
More than 104,000 children in foster care were waiting to be adopted in 2011, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The average age of entry into the system was 7 and more than half of these children are boys.
“People are afraid to adopt older boys because of this stereotype that children in the foster system are damaged and will have behavioral problems,” Kelli said. “But older children need a loving home and a family and security just as much as any newborn does.”
