Washington, D.C. – A 22-month old Afghan boy was reunited with his parents after a year this Tuesday, thanks to a crisis pregnancy center outside Austin. The child, Jasoor was separated from his parents while his family waited to board a flight to the U.S. at Kabul’s airport more than a year ago.

Benafsha, the boys mother, who served as a translator for coalition forces in Afghanistan was among the lucky ones granted Special Immigrant Visas to evacuate to the United States.

While waiting to board the flight, a suicide bomber detonated explosives, killing more than 170 people. Jasoor, their boy who was hardly one, was in the arms of his grandmother, and in the chaos that ensued, as soldiers exchanged gunfire with militants of the ISIS – Korasan Province, the pair were separated from the baby’s parents.

The boy’s parents were forced to leave Kabul without their son. The hope that they would soon be reunited and that by leaving they would best ensure their son’s safety sustained them as they departed without him.

Help comes from crisis pregnancy center
By December, the couples hope of finding their son appeared to be fading. The boy and his grandmother were barely surviving on their own in Kabul — as the dead of winter approached, they were running out of coal and had little food.

Facing eviction and a second pregnancy, the stressful mother contacted the Pflugerville Pregnancy Resource Center outside of Austin. Little did she know that this pro-life crisis pregnancy center would not only help her with her immediate needs, but it would be the means to seeing her son again.

Brittany Green, executive director of the pregnancy center, told CNA that when Benafsha came to them, they saw there were two critical issues facing the couple: medical care and housing.

The clinic helped her get health insurance, made an appointment with the center’s medical director for OB-GYN care and looked for a place for the couple to live.

While the pro-life pregnancy center offers counseling and health care to women in crisis pregnancies, there’s a lot more services that they offer to families in distress.

With the help of Loveline Outreach Ministry and a local church, the Pflugerville pro-life clinic found Benafsha and Mustafa a hotel room for a month, and they helped Mustafa find a job.

The Vulnerable People Project
Through Texas Alliance for Life, Benafsha learned about Jason Jones’ work evacuating refugees in Afghanistan through the nonprofit he founded, the Vulnerable People Project (VPP).

Over a coffee meeting with Jones, VPP was able to arrange within 24 hours a care package of coal and food to the boy and his grandmother in Kabul.

Divine intervention
VPP has helped thousands of Afghan citizens obtain visas to leave their country and find a safe haven elsewhere; Jones set the wheels in motion to get Jasoor a visa to the U.S.

Since Jasoor is considered an infant, it was particularly difficult to get him a visa to travel without his parents. The State Department finally allowed his 24-year-old aunt a visa to accompany him.

“I’m still in shock because it was such a seemingly impossible task,” Marilis Pineiro, the nonprofit’s legislative and diplomatic relations liaison told CNA.

“I ask myself ‘How?’ and the answer is that only God could make that happen.”

Jones told CNA that getting the family back together again showed the important role pro-life pregnancy centers play in serving mothers and their families.

“This is the happiest day of my life,” Benafsha said, holding baby Helen in her arms, and Jasoor by his hand, as they set off to their new home in Virginia, a dream come true after so much sorrow and uncertainty.
-CNA