Stephanie Mast
Appearances
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
To an extent, we've heard that. And then the other thing, like I said with the woman that testified at the board, they didn't like that service members were getting attached or that they were caring enough about this. Like, that's not the mission. This is a distraction. Do away with it. Like, literally, it was like it, the problem, the issue. It was just— Afghan problem.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yeah, it was just very wipe our hands, wipe our hands of it and walk away.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And leading up to that, like Joshua says, naively, like at the beginning, you thought that just got to get the facts in front of the right people and they'll make the right decision. And so that was, you know, your motive was just get the facts in front of the decision makers and they will see it and you'd act on her best interest.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And we were scrambling up to the very end to trying to get a hold of Trump. Did anyone, any decision maker trying to just show the truth?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
There were literally people running around banks trying to find him.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Well, our kids will probably confiscate them.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It wasn't a matter of if, it was when. Because as we had mentioned before, DOD policy all the way up to that point was make every effort to bring her home. And so we were, like for me, just like you would prepare for any other child, just being ready to have all the supplies, be ready to go. to, for us, receive a child that potentially had ongoing medical needs.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
So just trying to adjust my expectations of what life was going to look like at that time. And I would say for the most part, we were ready as much as you could be. But when it looked like they were going to forcefully just turn her over, at the last minute, I think we still, as Americans, just held out hope, like, if we get it in front of the right people, they'll do the right thing.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so I think even though that fear was very real, there was a side that was just like, it's going to come through. It's got to come through. It's a baby. They're going to see the innocence, and they're going to protect this baby.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And I remember that night, it was like one of the worst nights of my life that it was, I don't know what time it was, but I was in bed and like we did everything we could possibly do. And now we were just hoping that for some reason it was going to stop. It was going to be stopped. And Joshua walked in and the room was dark and I just remember your voice and you're like, she's gone.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I just, I didn't even say anything. I was so shocked. I was just, it felt like a kick in the gut. Like, I can't believe it. And that moment just, if you feel like a failure, because here you are, I mean, we were excited about what we were doing. We were proud of what we were doing. And there was like a full court press of everybody working together for this one child.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so it felt just like a failure. And I'll never forget what you said. You said, I don't know why. I have no reason to think this, but it's going to be okay. And of all things for him to say, it was probably the best thing. It was comforting. But I was just like, really? I can't see how any good can come from this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
After formally recognizing... Or if you want to say a little bit more politically, they ignored our legal parental rights and basically said, yeah, that's you, but we're going to do this. It was official U.S. determination and policy.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It was one conversation. We were driving, it was a road trip somewhere. And you were talking about the risk and
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And we're told that she's in a slum.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And her as a two-year-old... The sensitive way to say it is she was exhibitive. She was demonstrating signs of trauma. The girl, the baby at Bagram... was no longer there. Like that was the bright eyes, big smile, just open face, typical baby. When we finally saw her after that 18 month span, she was closed off.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It was to the point where I, for a split second, I wondered if it was the same child because she was so distinctly different. Her eyes were guarded, her face was closed off. She was like very defensive. And it wasn't until I saw the scar on her leg, which is very distinct. I was like, that's her.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I was kind of looking at her face, just looking for those glimpses from all the photos from the hospital, like looking for that little girl. And to say that she was traumatized, it would be an understatement.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
We did. I was 11. I met him when I was 11, and he was 12, and just grew up together, family, friends, and eventually high school sweethearts. But, yeah, so we've pretty much known each other our whole life.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
You know what? I have the head knowledge. I used to go to all his golf lessons when we were dating, but I cannot play golf to save my life. So I joined when he's gone into CrossFit. I joined him in CrossFit, so I had another way to keep up with him, but the golf course was not it. So I was the cheerleader. I would ride along and watch him play.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It was an incredible part. And it was chaotic. That wasn't the plan. It was just the plan evolved as all of this was happening. And I took some pictures along the way, which I think I've shared. Because for me, I'm a photographer by trade, but it felt like what Joshua was doing and the stories, I was just overhearing of everything that was transpiring. It was just so significant.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It was almost historical. And so I took—for whatever reason, we were driving up to Baltimore to fly out to Ramstein, Germany. And Josh was on the phone, and he was trying to get a group of 14, I think, that had— visas to Australia as he was on the phone with someone on the ground in Kabul. And I just had this urge.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I mean, probably not the best idea driving, but I just picked up my phone and I just hit record. And I started recording him on this phone call because it's just significant. It's not every day that you're speaking to people directly on the ground while all this is going on. And it ended up being the Marine that died, I think, the very next day at Abbey Gate.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And she personally, Joshua, was talking to her. And he's like, I've got a group. There are visas. It's been verified. They can get through. And she's like, well, the Australians are not here. And he's like, well, wouldn't it be a shame if 14 people can't get through because the Australians aren't here? And so she – go ahead.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Entire family units.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Communications and mass media. Okay. And photography.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Raising the kids.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
get back to the states like 12 hours before they did how did you find them though that was a minor miracle as well so um you were there too stephanie yeah we did yeah i went with him that wasn't the plan like i said we were it was just very responsive as to what was going on um i at the time my our youngest son was nine months old i was still nursing at the time so it was when josh was like we're gonna have to go because we don't know where in the world she's going
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
and were her adoptive parents. And so we both need to be there to be present. So I literally gave my nine-month-old baby to my sister, which she's, I mean, like a second mom to him anyway. So I gave, I handed him over and we drove up to Baltimore to fly out to Ramstein. And I remember asking Joshua, At the point, we were like, we didn't know where in the world they were going, like he said.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yes, I am. I am. So full-time stay-at-home mom. And there's never a dull moment. We have no wallflowers in our house. So they are all very big personalities and very confident. We joke that's the mass confidence that they just, they're all very confident and determined. And I mean, wonderful kids, but definitely they keep me on my toes.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so he was on the phone with someone at the control tower at Qatar and reading off where all the places were going. And I remember asking him, I was like, if we fly all the way to Germany, and what if they're not there? I mean, like, what's our family? We're going to look like idiots if we fly across the world. And then it's the wrong guess. And he's like, he's an educated guess.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
He's like, God's brought us this far. We're just going to go for it and see, you know, basically. see what happens. And so we did. We boarded the flight and we flew to Germany and landed within an hour of each other.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
We walked like 50 miles in a matter of a couple days.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yes. Well, originally they were going to private school, but with all of the travel that was required with the litigation, we couldn't take them out of school that much. And also just for security concerns and everything, we decided to take them home three years ago. And so I never envisioned myself being a homeschool parent, but here we are. And it's been good. It's made us stronger as a family.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yeah, so it was very spotty. But they had to be very close. Yeah, they had a phone. And whenever there was Wi-Fi, they would connect.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
We were together. Yeah, we were. And they brought her out. And so at that point, we were still in the impression, based on what we were told, that she may not be able—she couldn't walk. And so they carried her out. And I was sitting on a bench, and they set her—they were holding her at first, and then they set her down so that we could see her.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And that was when I first—like I said, she was so turned in where she would barely look out. She would kind of look up, and her eyes— She has really big, we joke that's like Jasmine, like Princess Jasmine. She has these big eyes, but her eyes were very closed off and she looked like a furrowed brow. And to the point where, like I said earlier, I was like, is that her?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Because her hair was short and just like straw-like and she was just like- Too sick as dogs. Yeah, just dark circles under her eyes and very, you know, she's thin. And I was shocked. And then when I saw, like when she's sitting on the woman's lap, I saw the scar on her leg and I was like, That's her. And so they set her down beside me and we took a photo and I have my hand on her back.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And the reason why I had my hand on her back is just like any young child where you're afraid like they're tippy or they're going to fall back. I had my hand on her back to make sure to stabilize her. And then she got down and she walked over. And in that moment, I was like, because in my mind, we're still operating from the information we had 18 months prior. medically disabled. So I was shocked.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I was like, she's walking. I kind of looked at Joshua like, man, she kind of tottered. Yeah, she tottered. But it was such a relief to know that she could even walk at that point because we knew the injuries in her leg. I was just like, wow, she can walk.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so that first moment, it was like at first it was disbelief, but then it was just relief to see that she can walk, she's alive, and this is actually her and we're here. And that was just a culmination of all of these highs and lows. And like Joshua said, even though this is a long interview, it's— There's so much emotion in like any good story. There's triumphs and there's failures.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
There's heroes, there's villains. And we've like through this experience have had all of that. And so in that moment, even with meeting them for the first time, there was such joy and relief. And it was just like, we made it to this moment.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And I mean, you have to live with each other. You're around each other all day. So it's great conflict resolution and learning how to get along. And it's been a good process.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And really we just, we did then what we were planning to do all along. We just poured everything into her.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so medical, like, I mean, I don't know how many times I went up to Duke and Raleigh and medical appointment after medical appointment, like from just a few days in, just went down the line, everything that we had planned 18 months prior or what, 18 months or more prior, we immediately executed and went down the line and just,
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
They do. I was surprised. They do. Probably because they know that once they get through their school, then they have more free time. So that's a pretty good motivation. But the older two play lacrosse, and then the younger three play soccer.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
started to just kind of get a gauge of, okay, where is she at physically, emotionally, just across the board and just poured into her. Yeah.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I didn't even realize that she didn't smile until a couple weeks in, and it was something, and you mentioned, she's like, oh, look, she's smiling. And it took a while for her, like, her face is now to today, her face is like her baby photos. It's like any child where when you look at their baby photos, you're like, oh, I can see, like, I can see the way they look as a kid. You can see it back then.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so... her face is back to the way she was as a baby, where big eyes, open, very expressive when she talks. But it took, it was like layers of an onion. It took time for that child to reemerge.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Enough to communicate. Yeah, she could communicate early on. But there was one...
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
time early on that really gave me a glimpse of what she must have gone through is we were i was going to i was loading the younger kids up into the car to go pick up the older kids from school and i was carrying her out so she's kind of at arms arm or at eye level on the hip and uh they're building a new community near like right across the road from us and there were roofers and they were going down the line going pop pop pop pop pop with a with a nail gun
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And I didn't even notice it. And I was just going out to the car and she looks at me and she goes, and she had this look on her face and she made eye contact with me. And that was very early on where she couldn't talk, but she looked at me and the look said, are we going to run? It was like danger. Are we? And she was looking at my face to see how I was going to respond.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
If I was going to duck and cover, like if I was going to run. And in that moment I looked at her and I just, it broke my heart. that a child that young had experienced some form of violence to know what that was, that that was a threat. And I was like, it's okay. Let's just start building houses over there and just try to lighten it up. And like, we're okay.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
We're just going to go get the boys from school. But just little glimpses of that, you could see little what it does to a person.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yeah, we have a house loaded with Nerf guns. So we're like the cool boy house. Nice.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It's more when you compare it to like how a child normally behaves, that's when it becomes more apparent. So I never realized when we first got her, she would stay. And still to this day, she's still somewhat like the kids will run all over the house and go into this room and that room. And she does now. But when she first came, she would stay in one room, like one area.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Wherever you put her, she would stay there and not like almost the freedom of movement or freedom of play. It was like she didn't know.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yeah, she would stay close to you and stay in one room. And so I would say it's been even like going to a playground, the kids would go play. She would stay close by or not interact with other kids. So it's been a process. And like, I mean, the best thing that I could say is just she has blossomed with love.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And circling back, because there's one point that I wanted to make when she was turned over, out of U.S. custody. I mean, obviously, it was just her whole future was at stake, and that was just grieving in and of itself. But what bothered me is that she could go through the rest of her life in Afghanistan and never know how loved she was.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
by hundreds of people that she had a name, that she had an identity, and people that fought and loved her fiercely and advocated that she could go on for the rest of her life and never know that reality. And what has been... so satisfying is for it to come full circle and for her to feel that love and to see it firsthand.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
We can go along with it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
this is our third year. So when we do an online format, so I don't have to do the grading or the lesson planning, it's all done for me. So I really, because we literally, I mean, life was happening so fast at that time between the traveling that we were doing for the litigation and we moved and then started homeschooling like all within a couple month period.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
So we needed something that was very, just open it and go. And so that's what we've been doing and the kids like it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
To the point where I couldn't even speak about it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Well, I'm a very structured person by nature. So for me personally, it was because they were going to school beforehand. So the school, that was the structure. So all of a sudden for that to be put on me, I mean, I pretty much adopted the same rhythm as a school. But...
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
me setting the structure that was a learning process for me and then also just juggling bouncing back back and forth between eighth grade science and then kindergarten reading and phonics like that can bend your it can be a little bit challenging switching back and forth in between different grades and modes of time and answering questions but um i'm i'm getting the hang of it
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I could even testify.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Eight-grade math is his.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
What's hard, you know, for me as his wife sitting here, you know, beside him living this, you know, going through this with him, is we've been, you know, known each other since we were kids. We remember 9-11, watching the Twin Towers fall. And he's as much of a red-blooded patriot, you know, American as you can get.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
and to see someone that has throughout his whole life acted honorably for his reputation, everything, and his morality, everything to be skewed and twisted to advance a different narrative and to favor another side. It's been hard to sit there and watch it, knowing the truth, watching him literally fight for his life, his career, everything.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Everything for us is at stake, and it has been at stake for a while. And to see a lie seemingly prevail for this long has been difficult. But... when we have had the opportunity to share our heart and share our story and share what we've seen, good people have stepped in and come along and contributed just enough.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Well, and the nature of your work that you don't have your devices.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It was in January. That was two years ago?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Well, earlier in this, when it became just litigated, I read a quote and it said that you can't rewrite someone's opinion of yourself. You can't change their mind about you. All you're responsible to do is to tell the truth and share your story. And that was our motivation coming on here, was not to sit there and fight down all the arguments, everything that's been thrown at us, but really just...
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
share the story share what happened and like as joshua showed there's a ton of facts out there that support everything but ultimately it comes down to a decision that in the moment just like the rangers did just like we did just like the hospital staff and all of the dod personnel it was a split-second decision to step up and advocate for one child
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And for, I hope, most Americans and most people, they'll understand how easy that is. Like, really, there's not, you know, some sort of twisted motivation or it's just really, there's an innocent child, there's something that we can do to help it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It's pure instinct. You just step in and you do it. And so, yes, living out the ramifications of the decision has been challenging. I think it's made us grow as people. But, I mean, ultimately, what we ended the Board of Inquiry, if we were asked, would we do this over again? Absolutely. We have no regrets. Okay.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Senator Cruz's staff.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yeah, so it was fall of 2019. We knew that the deployment was coming up. It was going to be short, but still just, you know, with kids and family life, we were anticipating trying to gear up for it. And then it happened earlier than anticipated. So I was in my final semester of grad school working on my thesis project, and you found out that you were going to go.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
So personally, like on the personal side, it was not the best timing in the world. So I felt like I was scrambling, trying to get ready to, you know— hold down the fort with three young children and be ready for you to go. So that was an intense time.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
They said about 45 days old.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yeah, so he calls me, and it was the afternoon, my time, and that was not a normal time for him to call. And so immediately, just, you know, your mind is racing. Why is he calling me in the middle of the day? Something happened. And so I picked up the phone urgently, like, you know, are you okay? Everything good?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And I'll never forget the first thing he said was, he's like, honey, he's like, there's this baby. And I remember I was in the kitchen, I just stopped. And I was like, and I could tell by his tone that something, this was significant, there was something. So he proceeded to tell me that there was a baby recovered off an objective, you know, parents were killed.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And they don't know what they're going to do with this baby. And so I had a similar reaction to him. I was like, well, we'll volunteer. We can do it. We'll help and take the baby if there's nothing we can do. There's nothing that can be done if she doesn't... At that time, we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. But like... You can't leave a baby there.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so he's like, well, he's like, slow down. He's like, I'm glad you said that because I already volunteered. And he's like, I'm glad to know we're on the same page. He's like, but, you know, they're going to do a family trace and there's a long, it's a long shot. We're just, you know, we'll see how it plays out. But good to know that we're on the same page.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so that's pretty much where we left it that first conversation.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
So a couple weeks in, like he mentioned, we get our very first photo. And we call it now, we call it the baby in the box. And that was the first time we learned that she was a girl and got to see her for the first time. But up until that point, when I got that initial call initially, And I debated whether or not, I mean, the boys were early, or they were pretty young at the time.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I wasn't going to really tell them that much. But I was so impressed that there's just like, there's this child out there that is in limbo. Its future, its fate is in limbo. And so I remember one night, it was a Wednesday night, and I was putting the boys to bed. And I mentioned to them this baby. And I said, we need to pray for this baby. And I didn't know, of course, a name or anything.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
So it's like there's a song, like an old hymn that says, Eyes on the Sparrow. And so we decided to call it Baby Sparrow. And so we would just, you know, I'd tuck the boys in bed at night. We'd pray for Baby Sparrow. And it was a good shift for myself because—
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And the early part of that deployment, being that I was trying to wrap up my degree and everything, I was kind of like, oh, how am I going to do this? And I was focused on myself.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And then all of a sudden, when I heard about this baby, and just really, because Joshua, when he would call me, he would describe just what he was seeing with other children when he'd go out outside the gate and everything.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It was eye-opening that, you know, here I am safe at home with my children and that there are millions of children in other parts of the world that are not guaranteed safety or a roof over their head or food. And so Baby Sparrow was something it gave us, it instantly shifted my perspective off of myself. And there was this innocent child that And that, you know, his whole future was at risk.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so that's where Sparrow came from was not having a name or knowing anything about it. And then a few weeks later is when we saw the photo and we realized she was a girl.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
your daughter to go back to that that's who we're dealing with well i think there's they've done a very good job at twisting the narrative because i think by and large the larger american public we don't they're not aware of the atrocities like what service members have seen on the ground what life is like actually on the ground in afghanistan most of the american public doesn't know that
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so it sounds very judgmental or it sounds like, oh, you can't say that or no, surely that can't be true. But the reality is there's a very big difference in the value of children. Like, they have a very different perspective.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Well, what I would add, though, is that the attorneys that we've dealt with, they make it sound like we're, what would you say, like... Like, we're almost like we're making it out.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I mean, I know there was the initial. It was the second big conversation. I'll never forget because it was, once again, the afternoon, odd time. And I think I was doing a school project. I was, like, photographing or something. And he was talking back and forth, like, how do we elevate this? Like, how do we—we have to get enough attention on this for a decision to be made. And that's when you said—
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so— You said—I just remember that line. You're like, we're going to have to get a hold of the president.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And I was like—it was quiet. I was like, okay. How do we do that? How do we do that?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yeah, she's going to be. I remember asking you. I was like, what do you think the odds are that, you know. 10%. Yeah, it was smaller than that. I think it was like 1%. You said something really small that we would actually be able to... But we were happy that she was safe.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Yeah, a child with special needs, absolutely.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Why? Well, we eventually found out why in the Board of Inquiry.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I would say, I would acknowledge, I think there was a period of time just because we were in a fight, we were like, we're okay, we're okay, we're strong, we've got this, we've got this.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And as the fight has, you know, drug on for almost five years now, like the whole process, it has, I mean, I've realized, we've kind of realized that we can acknowledge that it has been hard or challenging and that it has put stress on our family life.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And just as we were average Americans raising young children, just trying to keep up, juggle normal life, and then this on the side, you know, this as well. And so it certainly has been a challenge, but I think it's, It has made all of us, including our children, grow through this whole process and strengthen us in ways that, I mean, if we're honest, life is uncomfortable at times.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It's challenging at times. But it is making us rise to, I think, a different level of working together and trusting each other that had we not gone through it, I don't think we would be as strong as we are or we're becoming today.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Well, also add what he testified, the dog handler testified.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
She was very small.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Well, I was case in point the other day. A woman that I knew at church, actually, she put two and two together finally that, you know, like, she's my daughter. And kind of hearing about the situation, she's like, that's her? Because our kids played soccer together. And she's like, I would have never known. And unless you see her in a swimsuit or in a shorter pair of shorts, the scar is telling.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
The scar is distinct. But you would never know. She speaks perfect English. She's a typical five-year-old little girl. And I mean, there's moments even for me, even though we've lived this out and I know the story through and through, there's just moments where it really strikes you when you look at her.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And she's like, for instance, when I'm teaching her how to read and how to write, just how amazing it is that she's actually here in person alive. And just for her, it's just normal, but she's just...
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
a walking testament to just how miraculous sequence of events has you know kept her alive and most you know most people see would never even just think that she's america i've been told that she looks like me because she's brown hair and brown eyes but she's normal
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
So our code name for her was Sparrow. But the medical staff, it was Starfish. And it was based on a poem or a book where there's a little boy walking along the ocean. And he's bending down and he's picking up a starfish and he's throwing it back into the ocean. And he keeps doing it over and over. And an adult comes over and says, why are you doing this?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Can't you see the beach is filled with stars? Starfish, you can't possibly make a difference. And the boy bends down, picks up another starfish and throws it into the ocean. And he says, well, it made a difference for that one. And so she, they called her starfish because she was the unique one.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
that they could help in this war and all of the terrible things that they were seeing come through the doors. She was the one with the unique set of circumstances that they could actually help this one. And so, I mean, we've had dozens of medical staff come after they found out that she got out safely. Tell us stories.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
I mean, I've recorded some of the phone calls just because I want her to hear it one day of how loved she was by hundreds of people, not just us. I mean, hundreds of people. One man, he was crying on the phone. He's like, I can't believe she made it out. And he's like, I used to hold her at night because I guess the female nurses were stressed by her crying so much because of her injuries.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And early on, she was crying. She cried a lot. And so he said, I never took care of babies, never changed a diaper in my life. And I was like, I'll hold her. And so he would hold her because he had the night shift and he would hold her and watch movies or do his college classes and just hold her in his arms the whole time.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so he's like, and like Joshua mentioned, there's so many people who's like, I've always wondered what happened to that baby and like her in particular. And so like Joshua said, It's, you know, all of a sudden we're getting the attention, but it was across the board. Everyone that heard about her, they were motivated to do whatever they could to help give her a better future and a safe outcome.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And she's loved by hundreds of people.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
To the point where we bought a crib and we were ready to go. And I was considering dropping out of my final semester to be ready to take on a child with what we were assuming was special needs. That she'd have needing ongoing medical care.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
dead so many times over and we should have been crushed by the weight of this so many times over and then it's always been just enough and so we're confident however that comes it will come and she'll be safe forever i would say absolutely put our faith to the test and before you know before this period in our lives we were cruising right along and things were kind of going the way we expected it to go and this has brought us to the very end of ourselves where i mean like you
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Way beyond us. Yeah, beyond us, like our personal capacity. And both of us are pretty hard workers and determined. And so, for the most part, we're able to accomplish whatever we put our minds to. But this process has been so much bigger than that, that it's made us more reliant on our faith. And because we realize that we are not capable of doing it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And the colonel at the board testified that it was, and that's what we've come up against, is that it was almost like we were just these long rangers acting outside of. That's the narrative. Yeah, that's the narrative that has been put out there. But the reality is, is he said that it was duty policy until it wasn't. And all of a sudden there was a stark, there was a very distinct shift.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And all of a sudden it was shut down. And he said in the meeting with the general that basically decided that she was going to be turned over, that it was the most unprofessional dress down, if you want to say that.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Well, at the board, she testified. She was one of the first people to testify, and I was one of the—I guess one of the last. And what was surprising in her testimony is she referred to our daughter as—
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
an Afghan issue or I think at one point she even said problem and it was the attitude was it was like this is a distraction and I thought she was maybe mad at us for what we did to advocate for her but really it was across the duty footprint like the medical footprint she And some other bad actors found it disturbing that people were becoming emotionally attached or they actually cared about her.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so enough to get baby supplies and do everything that they did to basically love on this little child while she was in their care. And so she saw it as a distraction and something to be done away with. And so when it was my turn to testify, that was for the first time, because I've always wondered, why couldn't people see where we were coming from?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
To me, it was just a natural choice to advocate for an innocent child. But it was at the board that I saw that it was a fundamental difference in philosophy, or if you want to say worldview, is that we believed that innocent lives should be protected and advocated for if you can. And they were coming from the perspective that it was an inconvenience or a distraction just to do away with it.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
It was another issue. And that was the clash. That was the conflict, was there was one side of the camp that was saying, hey, this child deserves our protection. And then the other side is saying, no, this child doesn't really—it's meaningless. It doesn't have anything that affects us, so just do away with it. And what I testified, they asked if perhaps—
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
You know, our motives were ethnocentric, or why were we doing what we're doing? And I said, well, I said, as Americans, we believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And we believe that every human being deserves that. And so we were operating in every, all of our actions up till this very day has been to advance that for her.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And if there's people that out there that disagree with that, then I can agree to disagree because I know what we did and we can go to bed at night with a clear conscience before God and man because we did what was right. And the certificate and everything, it was not just us. It was us. Many people.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And so the question is, if this was a good— To who?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
But the question is, if it was okay, that was when I heard this colonel that testified at the Board of Inquiry, when I heard how he described her turnover, if they were doing the right thing and they had found family and they knew that she was going to have a safe outcome or she was going to be okay—
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
Why would they bring down armed guards and basically tell everybody, stand down, you're not going to do anything. This is what's going to happen. Why would they be concerned about a resistance among service members if what they were doing was on the up and up and right?
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And in reality, they threatened them, told them to stand down and told them this is what's going to happen and then had grief counselors on the back end. And like we said, we've had so many people come out of the woodwork saying, I was so devastated.
Shawn Ryan Show
#174 Joshua Mast - U.S. Marine's Message to President Donald Trump
And I've always wondered what would happen to her to the point where they hope that she would have died because they knew that her life, like she was just destined to a miserable life.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
But I'll never forget the phone call that I got because after that initial talk, walking to chow hall, he called me and it was in the afternoon my time. And that was not the normal time for him to call me. So initially that scared me like, okay, what's going on? It wasn't very long into his deployment. And so I picked up the phone and I'll never forget the tone of his voice.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
It just sounded different. And because I was searching instantly, like, okay, what's going on?
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And he said, hon, there's this baby. And I was standing in the kitchen. I just stopped. And I was just listening to him describe that it was a lone survivor of an Al Qaeda raid. And they don't know what they're going to do with this baby. And so just trying to sort through that. And I mean, as a mom, my heart goes out.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
We didn't know at that point, boy, girl, we just knew baby and it was injured and its future is, you know, up in the air. And so I was like, well, we can do something. We will volunteer for it. And I mean, I'm already a stay at home mom, have young kids right around that age range. I know how vulnerable and just, you know, how precious children are. So it's like, we'll do something.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And he's like, well, I'm glad you said that because I already volunteered. He's like, but you know, they're going to do a family trace and there's still a lot of things to figure out. So he's like, we'll see.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
I mean, it wasn't it was more of like if there's I mean, it was like he said, guaranteeing a safe outcome. So whatever that is, long term commitment. It wasn't just like make sure the baby's bandaged up and OK. It was like, absolutely. We'll open our home to a child that has a need like that.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Well, initially it was just seeking guardianship. And what Joshua said, it was, it was at the, it was like one step just was the first step. And like Joshua said, it was getting a visa so that she could, because she did have ongoing medical needs. Well, she'd actually back up. It was the initial conversation.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And then a couple of weeks later, we see the very first photo and we, we call it the baby in the box. And there's this little girl in a home Depot box and, on the floor of a hospital wrapped up in blankets. And so that was the first time we found out basic age that it's an infant and that it's a girl.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And then it just, when you see a, put a face to it, that is just where you're like, okay, what can we do? So initially it was just trying to guarantee safe, like ongoing medical care in the United States. And we were seeking guardianship, but that was, you know, after you found out what the requirements are going to be.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
It was very organic. But it ultimately, I think, stemmed from our worldview in that every life is precious. It doesn't matter race, ethnicity, background. I mean, she was an innocent caught in a terrible war. And so it was just a protective instinct. And we were put in the position. There was, like he said, dozens of Americans. This was not just us.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
This was across the board, the medical staff at Bagram. There were several people trying to protect and advocate for this one.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Yeah, but I would like to say that, and I already alluded to this, is that she was loved by so many people. It wasn't just Joshua and I doing it.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
It was the medical staff, and like you said, the rangers, and there was people pulling together to the fact where we called her, to answer your question, Sparrow, after those initial phone calls, and we started to get more information about her origin, and genuinely started to care about her.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
You know, I had young kids at home and it was, we were still early in the deployment, like getting used to him being gone and, you know, me juggling life at home with young children. And I was finishing up my last semester at grad school and just trying to juggle life. And, and,
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
When we found out about her, at first I wasn't going to tell the kids because it was such a, it was just like, no, we're not going to get them involved yet. But as I started to pick up momentum and actually look like it could happen, I remember mentioning it to the boys one night and I was tucking them in bed.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And I told him that there was this baby, and that was prior to us seeing the original baby in the box photo. And I said, there's a baby that's been hurt, and daddy's trying to help, see what can happen. So I said, well, let's pray for the baby. And there's a old hymn that's called His Eyes on the Sparrow. And so that's how Sparrow came to be, was we just prayed for baby Sparrow.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And it was just kind of something that we would, when we would pray in the morning or at night, we would pray for baby Sparrow. And so there was a little bit of initial hesitancy involving our family. Sure. And it's still to this day because they're seeing us live this out. I mean, they're in it with us. Oh, I know.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And as a family, we're going through this together and seeing us through the highs and lows of all of it. But at the core, for me at that time, it took my attention off of myself and even kind of a little bit if I had the oh, poor me syndrome. Always does. Yeah. Realizing that there was a real person out there with needs much greater than mine and that we could potentially make a difference.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And so that was, I think, all of a sudden that it had purpose and meaning. And you on that side, you were working at nonstop.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Well, our two main concerns early on was her ongoing medical needs because she did suffer trauma. But also, like Joshua said, just that she would be put back on the X again and she'd be targeted again.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And so what he, what we thought at the time was if we just get the facts in front of the right people, they'll do the right thing. Like that was it. We were, we were very optimistic. And so it was like, they just need to know the truth. And then there's not a question. And so we advocated during that time hard for her because
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And, and unfortunately what we come to, what we we've now come to realize is that's not the case. And so it was literally, it is with some, it is with some, but what Joshua said with that, the Colonel testified to is when it came down to where they determined that
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
and it came out in joshua's board of inquiry is they primarily saw her there was a few key figures that primarily saw her as a like he said an afghan issue an afghan problem or a distraction and fundamentally though there was one female that testified his board of inquiry a service member and she basically she was upset that service members came to care for this child
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
at the hospital staff in Bagram that they were buying baby supplies with their own money. They were trying to take care of her and make her comfortable and just help a child. What else would you do? That's the question that we've always wondered is why wouldn't you? But they saw it as a distraction, something to be done away with.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And the story, so she has two pseudonyms that it was either Sparrow or we called her Sparrow. They called her Starfish. And there's a poem where there's a boy walking along the ocean and he's bending down, picking up and throwing the starfish back into the ocean. And so the line at the end is an adult comes along and a question's like, how can you possibly make a difference?
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
The boy bends down and picks up another starfish and throws it into the ocean. He's like, well, it made a difference for that one. And for Starfish, is what they called her, she was a symbol of the one that they could help. Because in a terrible world where they're seeing unspeakable tragedy all the time, she was the unique one that they could help.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And so there was this rally cry around her to protect her and to keep her safe.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
At that time when they were told, basically, this is the new course of action and to stand down, what we learned at Joshua's Board of Inquiry is literally one of the generals, he had the entire medical staff footprint at Bagram. He sat them down and said, this is what's going to happen to her. This is the course of action. This is the decision. And this is what we're going to do.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
and he ordered everybody. That's what the colonel testified. It was the most unprofessional dress down he's ever been a part of. He basically yelled at everybody and said, this is what we're doing. And so they turned her over with armed, what do you call armed guards? Personal security detail. Personal security detail.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And the reason why the personal security detail, they were there was because they were concerned about a resistance among service members. So if this was family, if this was for her best interest and she was going to be okay, why were they worried about a resistance among young service members? Because ultimately, everybody knew what her outcome was going to be and they knew it was wrong.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
That is a miracle. The one thing I'd like to add is the night that, because we scrambled and we literally did everything we could to stop that turnover because all we knew it was to a person that wished to remain anonymous. And we knew that they weren't DNA vetted and that they were likely terrorist affiliated. And so we did everything we could do to stop that from happening.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And I remember, I'll never forget when you came in and you got the call, it was very late at night and he came in and he's like, she's gone. And I, I remember I was just like, I felt like I was kicking the gut and I was just like so devastated because I thought Trump or somebody would come through and save the day and she would not, you know, be turned over like that.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And I was heartbroken at that moment, but I'll never forget you said, and it was, the room was dark and I just remember your voice and you said, I don't know why I have no reason to think this, but it's going to be okay. And I was like, And I was just accepted at that point because I had no words. And I was just like, OK. And so that brings us to how she got out.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Like we, we had legal standing and we were her.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Teenager.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
So 18 months passes by, the teenage girl gets married to the son.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
But we would say an adopted parent.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
So, I mean, he's glossing over it. As you know, like that period of time, it was just, what he was doing was-
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
no i mean as a wife i will say heroic because it was around the clock there was a photo i took of him because he couldn't even take a shower without his phone just going off and he jumped out of the shower he's sitting on the floor wrapped up in a towel and i think at the time you're on the phone with the general and i just thought it was hilarious that here he is on the phone with the general can't even get a shower but it was just it was that high tempo i i think is one of the most incredible points of a 20-year war yeah i mean it was insane
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
So it ended up being, like he said, that we realized the plan quickly changed from him going. And I mean, he was literally, you were prepared. And I didn't know this after the fact that you wrote a video in case you died in the process of trying, because he was fully prepared to pull them over the wall. That was his plan.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
I didn't realize at the time that was probably a good thing, but we end up, he's like, because we didn't know where in the world they were going to go. it was, there was no plan. It was just like, they were getting on a plane and then it was just a guessing game as to where they're going to go. So at the last minute, I had a nine month old baby at the time.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Uh, and I gave my baby to my sister and we're like, we were her adoptive parents. We've got to go.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
We have all of her documents, everything to make sure that she comes to the United States, not some other country. Right.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And you.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
It's wee hours of the morning. I'm like, where are you? And he sends me a video. He's like, you're never going to believe where I am. And I'm like, get out of there. You don't belong in there. And yeah, that was the first time any of this, like we realized.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Yes. You've been in for 14 years now, so we've been married for 18 years, so our entire married life, most of our married life has been in the Marine Corps. And proud of, I mean, love the experience. And our four, we have five kids, four of them are boys. A lot of them want to grow up to be a Marine, or that's what they say at this age. And so just red-blooded patriots through and through.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
You delayed it for 24 hours?
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
But I would touch on it in hindsight, even though it was devastating, losing her for not for her not coming home. And when she was supposed to in 2019, we had a crib. We had everything ready. We were ready to go. We thought she'd be handicapped child. We were anticipating taking in a baby with special needs and we were ready as much as we could be.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And then for that to be delayed for that period of time. But as a result, because of the fall and because of honestly how everything providentially was woven together the way it was, how many people personally... Let me rephrase that.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
I tell them to be open to, but absolutely. I mean, I'm, I'm proud of the Marine Corps and just, you know, even our service members in general. And so I've, I love the community. And so we've been happy to be a part of it.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And it was. It was her. And when I was in the car, when you were on the phone with him on the ground, it was that moment. It was just so historic that he's sitting there talking to someone on the ground, pulling this grave through. For whatever reason, I had the instinct. I didn't want him to see me. I pull up my phone, and I record.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And so I actually recorded that conversation, not knowing any of that was going to happen, but recorded that conversation that he had with that Marine on the ground. and that pulled those 14 people through as a result. Have you met her parents yet? No, I have not.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
But we've always, I mean, he can't, I mean, I've known him ever since he was a teenager, and he never cried. I could count on one hand how many times he cried, but since... This whole situation, especially Abbey Gate, he can never talk about without crying because you feel it so deeply. And what we saw there and the evacuation, I remember calling back home to family.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
I was like, is this on the news? And they're like, no. And at the time, there was one Getty photographer and one CNN reporter. And it was historic. And I would echo what Joshua said. What the service members and the USO, what they were doing on the ground during the evacuation, it was heroic. Remarkable.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
18 years? Well, married 18 years. That's not a question. I met him when I was 11, he was 12. Oh my God. Childhood sweethearts, you know, grew up together, started dating in high school, and have been together ever since. So really, I mean, truly best friends, and been through everything together.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
September 2021.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And we started exactly what we were going to do back in 2019. It just went through. Same doctorate. Same doctor, went through every medical appointment that was recommended, everything that we could possibly do. And to see her when we did get her finally, she wasn't the same baby as she was in the hospital.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
She had in the hospital with all the service members took a lot of pictures of her and she had these big brown eyes and big smile, just happy baby, just would smile with her whole body. And when we saw her, when I saw her for the first time, I actually wondered if it was the same child because her face was closed off. And she was very fearful and scared. She would hardly look up.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Yes.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And I mean, just the fear and trauma on her face was just, I've never seen that in a child before. And it wasn't until I saw, like she had a dress on. I saw the scar on her. Like she has a very distinct scar on her leg. I was like, that's her. And I just, I could not believe it. But when she came home, I mean, she had lice, parasites, just emotional trauma, just everything.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
So it was kind of like the peeling back layers of an onion, just loving on her and pouring into her as much as we possibly could.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
very much so so now today she looks like her baby photos it's like you can see it's the same person big eyes just very expressive and it's like there there she is like that's that's the the true her but what she endured during that time there's uh one story that just i mean our life we are so blessed here in the states not to know
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
the degree of violence and just that other parts of the world have i was carrying her out to the car we were picking up our boys from school and um there was a community that was being built next to us and they're roofing and they were going pop pop pop pop pop with a nail gun and i had her on my hip and when she heard the sound of the nail gun she went oh and she looked at me
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
and the the look on her eyes her eyes were fear like are we going to run is it danger and she was looking to me to see how i was going to respond and when i and i and i saw that i was just like it broke my heart like that she knew that that she has obviously been exposed to that and then just you know like any other parent would just be like it it's okay and explained it and move on.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
But she's amazingly resilient and come so far.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is the day the FBI showed up at the door. And as a mom, literally bringing my kids in through the door from school, keys were still in the lock. And I get a knock at the door, and there were two agents there. And I had a baby. I went to my oldest son. I was like, take him in the room and watch him. I've got to talk to some people outside.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And my son wanted to play outside. He's like, I don't want to do that. I was like, honey, the FBI is here and I need to go do this. And he's like, they're real? Like almost like it was the Avengers or something.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
And that was the first moment where, and it was actually, they were there because of the terrorists and like, like there was a whole, like it was them trying to sort through what Joshua had reported. But at that time, that was the first, like that was when it started to change of like, oh, there's going to be conflict. And that was heartbreaking and brought pain.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Okay. Well, first of all, I'll tell who she is today. So she is a five-year-old girl that loves, just like any other girl, loves baby dolls and anything girly, pink, purple, coloring, just loves them. loves life, loves dogs and playing outside with her brothers. Um, and she's just a blessing and a true joy, just the most gracious little girl that you could possibly imagine.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Fear, obviously natural fear, because it's not about us, it's about her. And so the whole time, I mean, when she was initially turned over,
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
What I wrestled with for the longest time is that she could go through her whole life in Afghanistan with a completely different identity and never know that she had another name and that she wasn't anonymous, that she was loved by hundreds and prayed for by hundreds of people. So for her to be at stake again-
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
after all of this blood, sweat, tears, prayer, everything that we've invested, for that to be up for grabs again is just, the natural instinct is fear, protection, just wanting to do everything you can to keep one person safe and just wonder why people can't see the facts. Like we said, we're open books. Like, sure, you want the facts? It's all here.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Well, and what was amazing is that early on, they said, well, we're impartial. We're not going to tip our fingers on the scale of justice. But what we have experienced is the exact opposite. They very much have, the federal government, they have.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Um, she has a remarkable past. And if you saw her today, you would never believe what she has been through.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Well, and I mean, on a personal, to an extent, they did do a good job in silencing us. And the reason why we haven't gone out guns blazing before is because we're trying to protect her and our family. Like just parental instincts kick in. And to answer your question, what would happen to her? It would devastate her. She's five and a half. She has no idea who they are. We are her family.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Her brothers are her brothers and her life and the freedom. Taliban. Women. The freedom she has that now she, I mean, it took a while for her to loosen up, but she enjoys that now. It would be absolutely devastating to her.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
The story's yet to be told.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
backed us up like the fbi interviewed all these people and so from day one they're like oh yeah they knew they just and and i would say they have done the media they've done a good job at painting a narrative that's not true of the story they have no record of that but they've made it about him or us. Like we are just off. It's about her.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Well, it's about her, but we're one of many people that have cared for her. Yes, we are her adoptive parents and we have advocated for her, but we represent a lot of people that do that. So it's not just like, who do they think they are? This is many people that have stepped forward to protect her.
The Glenn Beck Program
Ep 246 | EMERGENCY PODCAST: Save ‘Baby Sparrow’ from the Taliban | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Thank you.