Photos: A Healing Bond: Sisters open hearts, home to burned Afghan girl

Arefa, in tears, clings to Jami Valentine and begs her not to let the medical team take her to the operating room.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Sedated on propofol, Arefa lies on an operating table while doctors prepare to examine and clean her skin graft. Her burn scars keep her eyes from closing, even when she sleeps.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Dr. John Lorant, far left, and the rest of the medical team prepare to examine the success of Arefa’s skin graft.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

An operating room surgical nurse applies a disinfectant to Arefa’s skin graft.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

After her skin graft surgery, a frightened Arefa cries out for Jami Valentine, one of her temporary caretakers in the U.S., to comfort her.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Staci Freeman, left, and her sister Jami Valentine try to comfort Arefa shortly after her skin graft surgery.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Arefa conveys her pain level by pointing to faces on a chart that resemble how she feels.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

It didn’t take long for Arefa’s personality to emerge -- a mix of spunk and angst. She spent hours at playgrounds, smiling nonstop. But she grew tense whenever she saw TV images of helicopters and war.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

In their two-bedroom apartment in El Segundo, the sisters giggle with Arefa over distorted photographs of one another on an iPad.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Arefa cries softly as she anticipates having to take a bath. At bedtime, when her injured scalp was washed, she often wailed so loudly that the sisters worried someone in their apartment building might call the police.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Over time, her skin graft began to heal and Arefa no longer felt pain when she washed her scalp. However, there was the future. The sisters worried constantly about how Arefa would be treated once she went home, growing into womanhood in Afghanistan with such obvious scars.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Arefa wears a pair of swimming goggles given to her by Jami Valentine so the girl could put her face underwater in the bathtub.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Nahida Shinwari, left, who provides volunteer translation services for the Afghan children who had come to the U.S. for treatment, shows Arefa a stuffed animal during a group outing with host families.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Sisters Heelai and Malalai Shinwari choose a henna pattern to decorate Arefa’s feet and hands during religious festivities.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Arefa attends services at a mosque with her host sisters Jami Valentine and Staci Freeman and with the Shinwari family.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

In November, Arefa had another appointment with Dr. John Lorant, right. When he removed her cap, there was good news: The skin graft had healed, and he said she could go home.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Arefa’s birthday falls in January, but she asked the sisters if she could celebrate with them in December to honor her seventh year. The sisters granted her wish and hosted a Hello Kitty party at Chuck E. Cheese’s in her honor.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

During a farewell ceremony with their host families, children cry before heading home to Afghanistan. For Arefa, the expected six weeks had stretched into five months.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Arefa gobbles up a soft ice cream cone -- one of her favorite treats after a visit to the doctor. She began tracking her time left in the U.S. by marking a calendar. “Eight more sleeps!” she exclaimed near the end of her stay.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

On a Wednesday near Christmas, Arefa’s bags are stacked by the door as she prepares to finally catch a plane home to Afghanistan. Her father was to meet her in Kabul.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

At the airport, Jami Valentine tries to hold back her own tears as Arefa cries during their goodbye. Valentine and her sister, Staci Freeman, didn’t know if they would ever hear from Arefa, whom they helped for about six months, again.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)