Tatyana was born in Russia, where she spent the first six years of her life in an orphanage. The orphanage couldn't afford a wheelchair for Tatyana, who has spina bifida and is paralyzed from the waist down, so she learned to walk on her hands.
She was adopted by Deborah McFadden and her partner Bridget O'Shaughnessy, after Deborah — who worked as a commissioner for disabilities in the US Department of Health and Human Services — met Tatyana during a tour of the facility. "After she left, I ran around telling the other kids, even the director, 'That's my mom. She's going to be my mom,'" Tatyana told People. Deborah felt the same way: "I still can't explain the connection we had, but there was no question in my mind that she was supposed to be my child," she said.