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13-year-old adopted son finally gets his ‘newborn’ photo shoot

Kelli Higgins' son Latrell is 13 years old. Only recently did he pose for his first "baby" photos.

Shortly after Higgins uploaded the images from to Facebook, the photos — and her family's story — went viral.

"Here's my sweet not so little Newborn! His name is Latrell and weighs 112lbs ;)" the caption reads on Facebook.

Higgins and her husband adopted Latrell and his sister, Chanya, now 7, two years ago. The family already had five biological children — the sixth was on the way — but Higgins was passionate about opening up her home to more children, specifically older ones who were having a harder time finding new parents.

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"These children, once they get past a certain age, they don’t find homes and they age out of foster care," Higgins tells 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."

Last month, Higgins, a professional photographer, was talking about an upcoming baby photo session with a client. Latrell expressed that he wished he had baby photos of himself.

"So today the Higgins family were sitting around the dinner table talking about anything and everything and the subject of newborn photography came up....my 13 year old adopted son announced that he wished he had newborn Photos of himself! My funny 12 year old daughter thought it would be brilliant if we 'recreated' the shoot with our now 13 year old son! We all started laughing at the idea of Latrell in all those cute newborn poses...so tomorrow that is exactly what we are going to do!!" says Higgins on Facebook.

The overwhelming positive reaction caught both mom and son off-guard.

"Oh my goodness!!! Thank you all!!!!! I am feeling so loved and so is Latrell, we are reading the comments together and this has really made his day!!!!" Higgins writes on Facebook.

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The image has been shared more than 4,700 times — and "liked" more than 11,000 times.

"Just finished Latrell's 'newborn shoot.' Now if I can compose myself enough to edit... My stomach hurts from laughing so hard!!!!! So glad my son has a great sense of humour," Higgins wrote before sharing the edited photos.

While some critics expressed concern that the images might embarrass the young teen, Latrell insists that he likes the photos and finds them funny.

Latrell's aunt comes to his defence.

"This is my nephew while they were doing this shoot they were both laughing so hard their faces hurt! So for the people saying 'creepy,' they will look back at the pictures they did and remember the fun and laughter they had making them."

Higgins is most proud of the fact that the pictures are challenging the way people think about older adoption.

"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 says.