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At night on Aug. 23, they passed through the Taliban checkpoints, halted for over 60 heart-racing minutes as sporadic gunfire pierced the air, Lima covering their youngest daughter's ears. They passed through the crowds of their desperate fellow citizens, scores of whom would lose their lives in a deadly ISIS attack at the same gates just three days later.

Both parents were gripped with fear, Abdul recalling, \"I can put a risk my life at risk, no problem. But I couldn't put the life of my wife and my children at risk because many people has been killed around the airport.\"

But in those dark days, they had a glimmer of hope -- nearly 7,000 miles away. Asked by ABC News's Stephanie Ramos about Abdul's case, Biden said, \"We want you to be able to get to the airport. Contact us. We'll see whatever we can do to get you there.\"

\"I will never forget this because that night made all life. That's why we're here,\" Abdul said.

Once inside the walls, they made it on a flight to Doha, Qatar, spending two months there, where they were vetted, vaccinated and given the green light for relocation.

On Oct. 30, they were flown to Philadelphia and driven onward to McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, where they've spent nearly two more months now -- anxious to make that last move to their new home.

\"PHOTO:
Courtesy Abdul
PHOTO: Abdul, his wife Lima, and their three daughters wait at a U.S. military base in the UAE after escaping Kabul as part of the unprecedented evacuation operation.
>

\"Patience is starting to run out a little bit,\" Dreyer, the DHS official, said of Afghans on base, \"But it's a process that takes time. You know, we want to set them up for success. We just don't want to place them around the country without a support network in place, and that takes time.\"

Until then, Abdul said, his daughters are not convinced they are really in America -- one telling him recently they're actually in \"a small village of Afghanistan,\" he said with a laugh.

But Abdul and Lima know how far away they are. Lima said she thinks of \"everyone\" back home, but especially for Afghan women.

\"There is not a hope of a good future in Afghanistan, especially for women. Women cannot do anything there,\" she said -- a future their three girls will now escape.

It's that future that keeps them going, they said, even on the most difficult days where the path ahead is in doubt.

Through it all, Abdul said, he remains defiantly \"proud\" of his service with the U.S. military and viscerally angry at the Taliban for destroying his country.

\"I want to be voice of the people who are still in Afghanistan and who are not evacuated,\" he said. \"And I will fight again against the Taliban. ... Up to the end of my life.\"

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