Danielle's story: Teen's journey is 'a work in progress'

Danielle Zanyk was born healthy and her needs were basic: love, nourishment, security.

That changed within two months as a large hemangioma began to form on the left side of her face. The tumor, though benign, was disfiguring.

“I had nine major surgeries, and fix-ups in between. The last one I had was this one, here,” Danielle says, pointing to a lacy crisscross of scars on her cheek. “They had to go inside my mouth. I’m pretty much used to it.”

The tumor and the surgeries are just a small part of the turmoil and challenges Danielle has faced. The 14-year-old has had to cope with a drug-addicted mother, an absent father and homelessness. But she is slowly mending the torn fragments of her life, bolstered by the love of her foster family, the Valentis, and the kindness of a local plastic surgeon, Dr. Andre Renard. As her facial scars shrink and fade, Danielle holds tightly to the hope of healing — her face, her future, her family.

Growing up quickly

Danielle and her little brother, Sean, lived for a time at the Salvation Army with their mother, Nicole Felicetta.

“Mom had a drug problem. It definitely altered us — the way we acted — like being happy and stuff like that,” Danielle recalls. “She was gone every night and fighting with my stepdad. We tried to ignore it and just went to our room.”

One day the Salvation Army’s Family Lodge manager, Joanelle Greubel, told Nicole about a school called Agape Corner. Greubel urged Nicole to leave the children with the Valentis, who run the school, where they would be provided with care and an education while she sought help in a rehabilitation program.

Almost overnight, Danielle and Sean became part of a large family.

“They fell right into the mix,” said Marko Valenti.

Marko and Elaine Valenti are no parental novices; they have six children of their own, ranging in age from 3 to 22. The former pastor and his wife worked with children for two years at a school in Durham, S.C., and pastored a church in Bradenton for a decade. Danielle and her brother, Sean, were the Valentis’ first two foster children, soon joined by three others.

“We wanted to be able to pull the kids out of the inner city and get them away from that environment, away from gangs. In Durham, we would sit on the porch and hear guns going off,” says Elaine Valenti.

On the Valentis’ 12-acre property in East Manatee, the only sounds are of cows mooing, chickens clucking, and the occasional “woof” of two sleepy dogs, Luke and Lady.

Danielle has spent five years with the Valentis, who teach classes in their own little schoolhouse on the property. Lined up against one wall, cubby-hole desks are filled with Valentis and foster children working at their own pace as Luke and Lady snore on the floor.

“I feel like her (Danielle’s) mother. We’ve been through a lot together, ups and downs, some disappointments. She’s one of my kids,” said Elaine.