Syrian refugees are greeted by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L) on their arrival from Beirut at the Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada December 11, 2015. After months of promises and weeks of preparation, the first Canadian government plane load of Syrian refugees landed in Toronto on Thursday, aboard a military aircraft met by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Story by Moni Basu, CNN

Video and photos by Matthew Gannon, CNN

Lethbridge, Alberta (CNN) Muna Ali adjusts the hijab covering her wavy brown locks as she pushes a cart at the Walmart Supercenter. The big day is almost here and all at once, time is racing and standing still.

First on today’s “to do” list: a crisp white shirt and clip-on tie for her son Mohammed. She wants him to look smart for the moment she has dreamed about for so long. But Mohammed is 6 and has other ideas. He’s drawn like a magnet to the “Star Wars” display.

“Can we get this?” he asks, showing his mother a pair of Darth Vader slippers.

“No, habibi,” she says, using an Arabic term of endearment but then gives in to a Darth Vader hoodie. He’s her only son and has been by her side throughout her ordeal.

Muna wants everything to be perfect for her family’s arrival in Canada. She knows they will cross the Atlantic with little, perhaps a small bag of clothing. They have nothing left of their life in Syria.

She picks up underwear for her nephews and then wanders into the men’s section. Her cheeks turn pink. “There are pictures,” she says of the Fruit of the Loom packages. “I am too shy.”

She comes from a conservative Islamic world, one of modesty. Buying briefs for her brothers proves too embarrassing. She looks at clothing for her mother and sister. “I don’t even know what they like anymore or what size to buy.”

When Muna said goodbye to everyone she loved in Syria in 2010, it was not meant to be for long. But as the uprising against Bashar al-Assad turned violent and civil war engulfed her homeland, months turned into years. Six long years.

The past few have been the hardest. Her loved ones were forced to flee the fighting and take refuge in other countries: Lebanon, Germany, Turkey, Sweden. They were a close-knit family suddenly splintered by war, unsure whether they would ever be reunited.

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