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Adopted 13-year-Old's "Newborn" Portraits Become Internet Sensation

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Feb 14, 2013 01:17 PM EST

An adopted 13-year-old boy with no baby pictures decided to pose as a "newborn" in a photo shoot for his adoptive mother.

Latrell Higgins from Crestview, Florida, asked his mother Kelli, 33, a professional photographer, to create an album of "newborn" pictures of himself as an infant.

One of the many images captured in the "newborn" album reveals Latrell swaddled in blankets and another that shows only his feet.

Kelli uploaded Latrell's newborn pictures on Facebook on January 29 and has since gone viral and attracted thousands of "Likes".  

"Here's my sweet not so little newborn! His name is Latrell and weighs 112 lbs," Kelli commented on Facebook about the album.

Kelli told Huffington Post that she had a great time taking photos of Latrell.

"As we were taking photos of Latrell we were laughing so hard it was hard to get a single shot!" she wrote to Huffington Post in an email.

Later on Facebook she wrote: "Now if I can compose myself enough to edit... My stomach hurts from laughing so hard!"

"This is the most touching thing I have seen in a while!!!! I love it," one commentator wrote on Facebook.

"I think it's really neat that they can celebrate/announce this adoption, no matter the age, the same way that birth parents announce their baby's birth. I think he is a good sport," another person who commented on the picture album added.

Kelli had adopted Latrell and his younger sister Chanya two years ago.  She told Today.com that she believed that it is "really hard" to have children and not know what they looked like when they were younger.

Kelli and her husband Daniel, 35, already have five biological children and are expecting a sixth one but she admitted to Today.com that she really wanted to adopt.

"These children, once they get past a certain age, they don't find homes and they age out of foster care," she said.

"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," she added.

Kelli told Huffington Post that even though the photo shoot was intended to get some laughs, she believes that others "saw the sweet side of it and liked the story behind the photo."

"It stirred up a lot of emotion about adopting older children," Kelli said. "And allowed people to see that these older children really are big babies who crave the love of parents and the security of a forever home."

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