Adopting older children brings both challenges and amazing rewards. One difficulty faced by many families, those who adopt internationally and from foster care, is the lack of photos of their child as a baby and young child. Children adopted at older ages have already lost so much, and this is another painful reminder of what they have lost. I knew it was coming, and finally it did the other night.

My younger daughter (adopted at age four) flipped through an album that had baby photos of my older daughter. Suddenly she began sobbing and was inconsolable that she did not know what she looked like as a baby. After acknowledging how painful and unfair this was, I told her that a while back I had painted a picture of her as I thought she might have looked as a baby. She wanted to see it, and she loved it. We put it in a frame in her room. The incident prompted me to re-examine an option I had considered in the past: getting an age regression photo done for her. After researching online, I found www.phojoe.com and was impressed with the examples on their site. I sent them several school pictures of my daughter at different ages, and requested an age regression to a one-year-old. The cost was surprisingly reasonable, I thought.

Within a few days, I had an amazing photo of how my daughter likely looked as a baby. I was so excited, I couldn't wait to show my daughter. She absolutely loved it! She was literally bouncing up and down with excitement! Of course, it is not the same as having actual photos from her infancy, but it is such a huge step in helping her put together the puzzle of her early life. As an added bonus, she will have the picture available for those 'Bring-a-Baby-Picture' assignments at school, if she chooses to use it. I am extremely impressed with the service provided my PhoJoe! I love the picture so much that I may order another picture of her as a newborn. I hope this is helpful to other families who desperately wish they have baby photos of their child. In my opinion, this is the next best thing.

Christine

www.christine-mitchell.com