Ana’s journey

Fran has been Ana’s steady companion during this three-year journey, taking her to the doctor’s office for consultations and being at her bedside when she woke up from the surgeries.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Dr. Munish Batra, left, and Dr. Michael Halls begin to excise the tumors during Ana’s first surgery at Scripps.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Ana’s parents, Ismael and Margarita Rodarte, can only wait and hope during Ana’s surgeries at Scripps.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Ana’s first surgery at Scripps took nearly five hours.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

After surgery, Margarita is relieved to see her daughter in recovery. Throughout Ana’s childhood, her parents tried to hide their concerns. They hoped that she could grow up like any other girl.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Two weeks after the first surgery, Ana took a look at herself in Batra’s office. He assured her that the swelling was only temporary.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Batra inserts an anchor into the bone adjacent to Ana’s nose during the second surgery at Scripps. Soft tissue was sutured to anchors to elevate the sagging and depressed tissue on the left side of her face.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A solitary surgical lamp illuminates Ana’s bandaged face after her second surgery at Scripps.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Fran drove Ana to Batra’s Del Mar office to get the sutures, staples and drain removed. Batra pointed out how the landmarks of her face -- the bridge of her nose, her lower eyelid -- were beginning to emerge.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Ana watches her father dance at a quinceañera in August 2007. She didn’t have a quinceañera of her own; it would have been too expensive.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

With a purple pen, Halls marks Ana’s cheek in preparation for her third surgery at Scripps. Consulting are Batra and Don Kikkawa, right, an eye surgeon.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Ismael listened closely as the doctors discussed Ana’s surgeries with the family.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The third surgery was the most complicated and challenging. It required the steady attention of Ana’s surgical team: Batra, Halls, Kikkawa and oral surgeon Andrew Chang.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

After the third surgery, Ismael and Margarita spend a quiet moment with their daughter. “It went very well,” Batra told them in the waiting room.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

On hot summer weekends, the family -- Ismael, Margarita and Ana, along with uncles, aunts and cousins -- sometimes headed off to a small fishing pond in Riverside County, where breezes kept the temperatures low.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“I hereby declare ... ,” Ana said at the oath ceremony at the Pomona Fairplex on Feb. 1, 2008. It was the culmination of nearly a year of waiting and studying for the required tests.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Charlie, Ana’s Chihuahua, gets a laugh in the Rodartes’ home, jumping from floor to sofa in a single bound.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Ana’s home has been her world. Today she takes classes at a beauty school and wonders what lies ahead for her.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)