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Mary,
Hoping not to complicate things, I'm assuming that you will go forward with the photograph you and the family have selected, as the best of practical options available for now.
Because of the fairly flat light and very subtle value range within the figure, you might need to push those values a little bit toward the extremes in order to get the depiction of form. To that end, I'm attaching, first, a grayscale version of Cindy's attachment, and then the same image "overexposed," that is, with the contrast pushed way up, to more clearly show the value shapes and locations. (I'm not suggesting that you paint your value differentiation this markedly -- this is deliberately over the top for demonstration purposes only. You will of course be more subtle.)
The disappearing arms may or may not present a problem, but I think it essential that you pay very close attention to the values first, drawing second, color third. (If you can do all three at once, great.)
The grayscale also shows, for better or worse, the compositional weight of that white brick structure to our right and the white floral riser behind her. You're going to want to greatly subdue those values, as they will otherwise overpower the girl as well as the composition.
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