Noor Abdalla’s First Month of Motherhood With her husband, Mahmoud Khalil, locked in a detention center, the dentist is suddenly a single parent.

The Cut ^ | May 29, 2025 | Angelina Chapin

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When Noor Abdalla came home from the hospital last month, she put the car seat carrying her newborn on the kitchen floor and burst into tears. “I walked into the house by myself with this beautiful baby, and I think it just kind of hit me,” she says, sitting on a gray sectional in her Morningside Heights apartment. “I have to do this alone.” Her voice cracks, and she reaches for a Kleenex to dab at her eyes. “I think I’m doing so well, until people start to ask me questions.”

It’s late May, and her baby, Deen, is napping soundly in the other room. “Sometimes he’ll have the little crying fits where you don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve changed his diaper, I’ve burped him, I’ve fed him. What’s going on?” Such are the challenges faced by every first-time parent, and Abdalla’s living room has all the typical trappings of postpartum life: a diaper bag on top of a green pouf, a WubbaNub pacifier attached to a stuffed giraffe, a bassinet against the wall. But among the baby gear is a poster that says FREE MAHMOUD KHALIL and a Mother’s Day bouquet with wilting white roses that her husband sent through a friend. Instead of celebrating the day with his wife and new son, Khalil has been held in an immigration-detention center nearly 1,500 miles from his family since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him on March 8. “To the most beautiful mother in the world,” the card reads. “I love you and will see you soon.”

Abdalla, who grew up with three siblings and many cousins, always knew she wanted a big family. “He’s always been like, ‘Sure!’” she says of Khalil. “‘However many you want.’”

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