Diana was only seven when her alcoholic mother started hitting her. “The first time I was in shock and tired to stop her, but I wasn’t strong enough,” says Diana. Over the next three years she endured cuts to her face with scissors, beatings with a broom stick until it broke, and biting of her ears. Once, Diana’s mother even held her head against a gas stove, burning her scalp and leaving a large section of it without hair.

Diana realized at age 10 that if she stayed with her mother, she would end up dead. Scared and alone she ran to the streets of the Ukraine and quickly fell in with other street kids. Begging for money and food to survive, Diana slept at night huddled in doorways or cuddling up to hot water pipes beneath the streets of the city. It was there that she was found by a woman working at an orphanage called Father’s House who encouraged her to leave the streets and seek refuge at the orphanage.

The American sponsors of Father’s House flew Diana to Springfield, Missouri after contacting Dr. Keith LaFerriere for help in treating her numerous facial wounds and scars. Dr. LaFerriere gladly donated his services to begin the process of repairing the damage Diana’s mother had inflicted. Diana arrived in Dr. LaFerriere’s office as a shy 11 year old Ukranian girl who spoke no English but who’s heart understood that she had found people who wanted to help her.

Diana’s story didn’t end there. After living with several different families and searching for the right adoptive family, Diana chose to return to the Orphanage in the Ukraine after her numerous surgeries. It is there that she met her adoptive mother and brother as they traveled on a church mission trip. “I never thought of adopting a child, but I was overwhelmed by the scars on Diana’s face and couldn’t believe that her mother would do that to her. In the short time I was at the Orphanage, we made a connection and I had to do something,”says Tara.

Tara and her husband, Larry and their two sons battled with bureaucracy until they were allowed to bring Diana back to America to be a part of their family in North Carolina. Diana is now eighteen and recently graduated from high school. She traveled again to Springfield, Missouri this past summer for a much anticipated surgery by Dr. LaFerriere to help improve the appearance of her nose from the facial trauma she suffered as a child.

What Dr. LaFerriere saw this time, was a confident young woman with hopes and dreams and a bright future before her.