#35 Two hearts

This story is about a high school girl who was given the opportunity (فرصت) to go to high school in America. She was very happy because it was a dream come true. It was also the most difficult decision she had ever made. Afghan families are very, very close. She would be far from home. She had never been outside her country before. Can you imagine how scary that would be for a young girl? She had never been on an airplane. She had never slept without her sisters all around her. She had to learn to speak English, eat new foods, and understand all new customs.  
    It wasn’t easy. Sometimes she felt very lonely ( تنها ), even when everyone was kind to her. Sometimes she cried. Sometimes she really wanted to go home but, even more, she wanted to succeed for her family’s sake. So she didn’t quit ( ترک کردن ). 
     This story is about something that happened her first year in America. It was the Christmas season.  She stayed with a host family who did  projects to help her feel a part of the community. One of the projects was making little hearts from dollar bills. The family made lots of them. When people came to visit, Freshtah would give them a heart as they left and wish them a happy Christmas.
     One day an older neighbor, who everyone called Uncle Irving, came to meet the brave, young girl from Afghanistan. Freshtah gave him a dollar when it was time for him to leave. But Uncle Irving sat down again and said, “I would like to give you a heart, too. But I don’t know how to make one. If I give you a dollar, will you make me a heart? Then I can give it to you!”  
     Freshtah smiled and said, “Yes.”
     Uncle Irving took a long, long time looking in his wallet. At last he pulled out a $100 bill and gave it to her. Everyone cried out, “No, no! That’s too much! You can’t . . .”  But he held up his big hand and said, “This is my heart, not yours.”
 

Freshtah carefully made the heart. Then Uncle Irving gave it back to her and said, “You can spend the money however you want. I only ask that you to think very carefully before you spend it.”
     Freshtah kept the heart four years and then returned home. When she arrived home, she learned that both her father and mother had lost their jobs. When she gave the heart to her parents, no one in the family knew what to say. They couldn't believe
( باور كردن ) that such a thing could happen. It was a miracle, they said, from a man they didn’t know to give such a gift. The family was able to use the money to buy food until their father found work again. 
     Uncle Irving kept the dollar heart that Freshtah made him in his wallet his whole life.