-Funding for this film was provided in part by Richmond's First Baptist Church... ...with contributions from the members of and friends of First Baptist.

And by the Commonwealth of Virginia Film Office.

[ Speaking Farsi ] ♪ -The Taliban has swept through the Afghanistan capital of Kabul.

There are chaotic scenes as U.S. troops at Kabul's airport strive to evacuate Americans as well as Afghan civilians.

Seven Afghans died... [ Shouting, gunfire ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Indistinct chatter, honking ] [ Indistinct shouts ] ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Gunfire ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Jet engines whining ] -I remember I was in the living room and I was watching the news, and I remember seeing these people hanging off of airplanes, trying to escape something, and I called my husband in and I said, "You have to see this."

I remember thinking that these people had to make a choice between living in Afghanistan in their home with everything they had, or risking their lives and hanging off the side of an airplane to escape it.

[ Horns honking ] You see these things on the news, and then you feel really bad and sad, and there's -- you wish you could do something, but then you have to move on with your life, so you go to work, you bring your kids to school, and life goes on.

It was the following Sunday that we were in church, and over the pulpit they said, "So our church needs some volunteers to go to some of these military bases all over the country where the Afghan refugees are going to be coming in soon."

And I said to my husband after church, I was like, "I think I need to do this."

Alright, just landed in Philly.

It's going to be 10 days... at Fort Dix.

Here we go.

So I was one of the volunteers who was doing kind of what we called processing or intake -- so, when people arrived, we would take their documentation, and we would start the paperwork process for them.

This is where you learned a lot about their journey, their lives back in Afghanistan, how they got here, if they had any documentation that would be helpful for them, and many of them did not, which was really hard and heartbreaking.

Many of them left with just -- you keep hearing it, but they left literally with the clothes on their backs.

It was hard.

It was hard because every day, you know, dozens of people coming in, not knowing what the future held for them.

♪ -She started telling us that, um -- she said, "I feel -- I feel sad a lot, and I'm always angry with my children, and I'm yelling at my children and I don't know why.

I get so frustrated, and I'm just sad, I'm really sad, and I just don't know why."

And that's...

Sorry.

-I recognized in her what looked like depression, maybe postpartum still from her youngest, and then add on to that everything that she had just been through.

And then she, um -- and then she looked down and she put her hand on her stomach, and she said -- Sorry -- she said, "And I'm pregnant."

♪ [ Indistinct chatter ] ♪ -I went back to my room that night, and obviously I couldn't stop thinking about her, right?

So I called my husband and I said, "We need to do something for her."

And I didn't give him an option.

I said, "We're doing this."

And I married a saint, and so he said, "Absolutely, what do we need to do?"

♪ -I went back the next day, and I went, and I found her, and then I had to find some random person who spoke English in the hallway to help me translate because this was a really big deal.

-And I think she was really confused.

She didn't know what a Minnesota was.

-I could tell she was really touched by that, but she didn't know how to answer, and so the more I was explaining to the translator, "Hey, this is what this means: so, you would come and you would live at my house, and we would help you get set up."

-Essentially what I was doing was asking her to take, like, a huge leap of faith.

She had no idea what to expect, but I'm asking her to trust me.

So she thought, "Okay, you seem nice, let's go."

♪ -Hello!

[ Chatter ] ♪ ♪ ♪ -Hey.

-Chris.

-Hi.

-Ch-- Chris.

♪ [ Laughter, excited chatter, bell ringing ] ♪ ♪ -Hi!

♪ ♪ ♪ [ Children laughing, shrieking ] -Hi!

[Indistinct] Hi!

Michelle -- nice to meet you!

-My name is Anahita Khanjary.

-Nice to meet you.

-Pleasure to meet you.

-Thank you.. -Anything to drink?

You're good?

-I wanted Anahita to have a real special experience because since I met her many months ago, she always talked about her hair, and how she really likes her hair, but it's been a long time since she's been able to do anything with it.

-Aren't you the sweetest gal?

-Relaxing.

-She doesn't have a lot of luxuries right now.

There's not a lot of opportunities for her to put on makeup or wear a nice -- something nice and new.

-Nice!

-Nice!

I think it helps to help her feel more whole and, I don't know, it gives a person dignity when you feel good.

-Stand up and flip it around, or... -Thank you!

-It's so pretty!

Now let's go to the make up.

Sorry, right?

Make up!

Make up!

-Make up!

Make up looks really -- -Yes!

-Bye-bye!

-Thank you, Amy.

Bye, have a good night.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Indistinct chatter ] -Hey, Victor, let's get cleaned up, please.

[ Chatter ] -So, yeah I do remember when I first met her.

It's been about a month now -- so, the first thing I noticed was that Hasiba was very comfortable being in a situation that would not be comfortable.

She genuinely seemed to be happy to be in our classroom and seeing my students accept her the way that they did was a really, really cool feeling.

-"I see the orange."

Orange.

Orange, good.

Where's the orange?

She's made a great amount of progress.

She comes in the classroom, she unpacks her bags, she sits down with her iPad, she gets to work on the morning work that the rest of the students are doing.

If she needs help, she knows how to ask for help now, which is fantastic, because as the teacher a lot of times I'm wondering, you know, does she need help?

Even though she looks comfortable, and she looks happy, is she understanding what's going on in the classroom right now, so that's where Hasiba has made really, really great strides.

-Okay, did anyone else do the same as Hasiba?

[ Indistinct ] -Okay.

-Hi!

-Anahita?

-Hi, Teacher, good morning.

-Good morning, good morning.

Is your friend still there?

-Yes, she is.

-Could she ask Anahita if she can come to class at 8:15?

-Apple.

Apple.

-Apple.

Apple.

[ Indistinct ] -Anahita, your favorite food?

-Ice cream!

-Okay!

-We had about four inches of snow, it's been snowing all day, actually, and, uh... Yeah, it should be interesting.

The brake is your enemy on ice.

If you lock your wheels, you're just going to go straight.

You're just going to slide right into whatever you're trying to avoid hitting, so you don't want to slam on your brake.

[ Interpreting ] We're going to turn on this street and pull over.

-You're just going to go into drive, okay?

And park is this.

-Stop, stop.

-I worry a lot about her.

At some point the state will want her to start working, and she wants to work.

It's no coincidence that the police station is about a half mile away.

I was hoping that maybe she could do something there, eventually, and it sounds like that's what she wants to do.

-Next light, turn left.

-She's very committed to learning English, and she knows that's kind of her ticket to success here, and when she can start driving her world's going to change.

-And, stop.

Nice job!

[ Speaking Farsi ] -Thank you for shopping at -- -Thank you!

Please remove all scanned items.

-So here's your bags, and then you'll just put things inside.

Okay?

Four.

One, two, three, four.

-Yeah.

-20 minutes, okay?

-Okay.

-So what do you need?

What do you think?

Do you need anything for the kitchen?

Kitchen, maybe?

-No... -No?

I think this one might be good.

-No.

You don't want it?

-Okay.

-You're okay?

Okay?, all right.

-Yeah.

-Well, I will tell you that I know I've lost a lot of sleep over this, but I can tell you that Anahita is panicked about this very thing.

This is what keeps her up at night and stresses her out every day, is, where is my rent going to come from?

How am I going to make these ends meet with six mouths to feed?

Do you need any clothes?

The answer is, I don't know.

That's the short answer.

It's not like she's going to be thrown out in the street.

Nobody is going to see her homeless, but at the same time, she is going to need a lot of help.

[ Gasps ] [ Indistinct ] Someone like her, in her situation being a single mom, and maybe unable to work right away, she will be eligible for additional programs that others may not, but again, it's never really going to be enough for her to live, quote, unquote, comfortably.

She'll always be very stretched, so that's where that community support piece really comes in.

-And for you?

-Okay.

-Thank you.

-Thanks so much, you guys!

-Bye.

-Okay, bye!

Hi!

Oh!

[ Laughter ] Hi!

[ Indistinct chatter ] [ Heartbeat echoing ] [ Speaking Farsi, laughing ] -155!

Sounds perfect.

Perfect.

[ Heartbeat stops ] Your baby sounds wonderful.

[ Anahita laughing ] ♪ -All right, let's listen.

[ Whooshing, heartbeat ] -Sounds perfect.

Perfect.

Thank you.

-Of course!

♪ [ Husband ] [ Anahita ] -See you!

-See you!

[ Laughs ] ♪ See you.

♪ -I don't want to discount, or not recognize, the...the pain and the guilt that people are carrying around from leaving family members behind.

There's a lot of that.

There's a lot of heartache.

But there is also so much hope and joy.

Her kids are so joyful.

They are always laughing.

I hear the sound of their laughter, like, when I go through the day, I just hear it in my head, and it makes me so happy.

'Cause they are joyful.

And how that's possible, I have no idea -- after what they've lived through, I have no idea.

Do you have them for all the kids?

Can you find them?

Not shoes, but boots.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

For snow.

Oh, do you need some help?

Hold on.

-Josef!

-Oh, there we go.

What's amazing about Anahita, is she's a young mom, she's not even 30 years old, she has five kids and she has one on the way.

This, do you have more of these?

And what she did to get them here, and the sacrifices she made knowing she was separating them from their father, and their family, and their homeland, and their school, and everything that they know to bring them here to save their lives -- it wasn't for a better life, so to speak.

They'll have one here, and she knew that was part of it, but she brought them here to save their lives.

♪ I would want her kids to know that, until they're parents, and they have to make really hard decisions, even then they may not completely understand the sacrifices that their mom has made for them.

Every mom sacrifices, but what she has done is... it's indescribable.

Her strength through all of this has been so inspirational.

I learn a lot from her as a mom.

She teaches me every day.

I want her kids to know that she sacrificed everything for them.

And I hope that they always take care of her -- and I know they will.

That they need to just be grateful forever for what she has done for them.

♪ [ Laughing ] -So good, yes!

Whoo!

So good!

[ Laughter ] ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Hasiba ] ♪ ♪ -Okay, we're at the hospital.

It's just before noon.

Anahita is in this room right here.

We've been here for about four hours just getting her ready to have the baby, and she's resting comfortably and seems ready, for sure; a little scared, but I think everything will go great, and we're soon going to have a little baby girl.

♪ ♪ [ Sahiba ] [ Cellphone ringing ] -Hello?

-Hi, Fahim.

We're coming home.

-Oh, that's very good!

We are excited and we are waiting here.

[ Speaking Farsi ] ♪ [ Speaking Farsi ] ♪ [ Gasping ] ♪ ♪ ♪ -Sahiba, come here.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Branches rustling ] [ Indistinct chatter ] [ Speaking Farsi ] ♪ ♪ -♪ Baby shark, baby shark ♪ ♪ Baby shark ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Speaking Farsi ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -Funding for this film was provided in part by Richmond's First Baptist Church, with contributions from the members and friends of First Baptist, and by the Commonwealth of Virginia Film Office.