Kayla Mueller Read Kayla Mueller's last letter to her family: 'My heart longs to be with you' Feb. 23, 2015 at 8:20 AM ET 
 
 The family of Kayla Mueller, the U.S. aid worked killed while in ISIS custody, spoke to Savannah Guthrie in their first interview since Kayla's death. In an earlier letter sent to her family, Kayla wrote: "I DO NOT want the negotiations for my release to be your duty, if there is any other option take it, even if it takes more time." 
 
 The family shared a second letter exclusively with TODAY. This is the last letter they received from their daughter while in captivity . Below is a transcription of the letter: 
 
 Everyone, 
 
 Once again you are being contacted by prisoners who have been released. They will explain to you the situation. As I said in my last letter (that I pray you received from the three women) I am OK, healthy, remaining strong and being treated kindly. Do not worry... I love you all. 
 
 All that I have said in the previous letter stays true. Give your suffering to the Lord, let our creator support you. Continue to pray, by God I feel your love and your prayers. As I shared with you in my last letter part of a song, I will share with you another. This one I have written for little Lex: "Oh my Grace. I close my eyes, you bring me home." I look towards the day when I can sing to her the rest. I do not know what you have told her, but if it's appropriate, tell her Auntie Kayle sends her big hugs and kisses. Tell her I am very sad that I am far and that we cannot Skype like before, but when I come home we can play, make music together and have so much fun... She's my little Grace and I love her so much. 
 
 My heart longs to be with you all as... I have never felt before, but praise be to God you are in my dreams almost every evening and for just those brief moments in my sleeping conscious that we are together I am given a warmth. It's warmth enough for me to wake with a smile. Warmth enough to keep me company through the days, and warmth enough to keep my heart near to home and therefore to God, Mark 12:28-30. "The first of all the commandments is hear O'Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy souls and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. 
 
 All my everything, 
 
 Kayla 
 
 Courtesy of the Mueller Family 
 
 This paper was found in Kayla's room by her parents after her disappearance. They don't know when it was written. It appears to be a list of Kayla's life goals. 
 
 Courtesy of the Mueller family 
 
 The Mueller family also shared an application essay Kayla wrote during her junior year of high school. 
 
 Courtesy of the Mueller family 
 
 Courtesy of the Mueller family 
 
 To learn more about the family's effort to honor Kayla's life, visit their non-profit foundation, Kayla's Hands. ||||| Kayla Mueller Kayla Mueller's parents: Why we feel ISIS wanted to release our daughter Feb. 23, 2015 at 8:29 AM ET 
 
 Kayla Mueller's parents, Carl and Marsha, say that despite fearing for their daughter's safety in captivity at the hands of ISIS, they were holding out hope for a reunion because of frequent contact with her captors. 
 
 "We always had that little bit of hope that we would always get her home," Marsha Mueller told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie in an exclusive interview. 
 
 "I really feel that we had a chance to get Kayla out," her father Carl explained. "We were in communications with them, unlike other families. But how do you raise $6.2 million? You know, it pretty much made it impossible." 
 
 
 
 Mueller, 26, was confirmed dead on Feb. 10, four days after ISIS claimed she had been killed in an airstrike in Syria. 
 
 The Muellers said communication with their daughter's captors fell apart once the White House agreed last year to trade American soldier Bowe Bergdahl, held for five years in Taliban captivity, in exchange for five Taliban detainees being kept in Guantanamo Bay. 
 
 Related: Read Kayla Mueller's last letter to her family — 'My heart longs to be with you' 
 
 “That made the whole situation worse,” said Kayla’s brother, Eric Mueller. “Because that's when the demands got greater. They got larger. They realized that they had something. They realized that, ‘Well, if they're gonna let five people go for one person, why won't they do this? Or why won't they do that?’” 
 
 Carl Mueller said the move raised his hopes a similar swap would be made for his daughter. 
 
 
 
 “I actually asked the president that question when we were in the White House," he said. "Yeah, that was pretty hard to take.” 
 
 Matt Hinshaw / EPA 
 
 He also expressed frustration with a U.S. government policy that forbids paying ransoms for the lives of American citizens, noting other Western countries have paid millions to secure the release of their nationals. 
 
 “We understand the policy about not paying ransom, but on the other hand, any parents out there would understand that you would want anything and everything done to bring your child home,” Carl Mueller said. “And we tried, and we asked. But they put policy in front of American citizens’ lives. And it didn’t get it changed.” 
 
 The Muellers also addressed concern over whether her daughter was too young to truly grasp the danger she put herself in while traveling abroad. 
 
 Related: Kayla Mueller's parents say her boyfriend 'risked his life' to save her 
 
 “Well, yeah, it was overenthusiastic youth and, of course, being naïve. But who wasn't, you know?” Carl Mueller said. “How many mistakes have we all made in life that were naïve and didn't get caught at? Kayla was just in a place that was more dangerous than most. And she couldn't help herself. She had to go in there and had to help.” 
 
 In her 26 short years, Kayla traveled to the bleakest parts of the world to help the needy. 
 
 “The only time we ever saw her was when she was home to earn enough money to buy another plane ticket to go back and work with people,” her brother said. 
 
 On Monday, the family unveiled a foundation, Kayla’s Hands, devoted to the causes that its namesake felt passionate about. 
 
 “She had to be busy with her hands doing something to help people. And as long as she was, she was just joyful,” her mother said. 
 
 "She just didn't have enough power as one little person. Maybe we can get the world behind her, or at least behind Kayla's Hands." 
 
 To learn more about the family's effort to honor Kayla's life, visit their non-profit foundation, Kayla's Hands. ||||| PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — The brother of an American woman who was killed after spending months as a hostage of Islamic State militants says Kayla Mueller's situation worsened after the government traded five Taliban commanders for a captive U.S. soldier. 
 
 The militants increased their demands after the May swap for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, Eric Mueller told NBC's "Today" in an interview that aired Monday. 
 
 "That made the whole situation worse because that's when the demands got greater," he said. "They got larger. They realized that they had something." 
 
 Mueller's death was confirmed Feb. 10 by her family and U.S. officials. The Islamic State group claimed she died in a Jordanian airstrike, but U.S. officials have not confirmed that. The Pentagon said it didn't know how she was killed. 
 
 The 26-year-old international aid worker, who grew up in Prescott, Arizona, was captured in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria. 
 
 Mueller's brother and parents spoke to "Today" host Savannah Guthrie. The family has declined repeated requests for an interview with The Associated Press. 
 
 The young woman's father, Carl Mueller, said that the United States' willingness to swap for Bergdahl but not pay ransom or allow ransom to be paid for his daughter "was pretty hard to take." 
 
 "I actually asked the president that question when we were in the White House," Carl Mueller said without elaborating. 
 
 Some U.S. lawmakers were outraged by the exchange of five Taliban commanders held at the Guantanamo Bay prison for Bergdahl, an Idaho native who left his post in Afghanistan and was captured and held by the Taliban for five years. 
 
 President Barack Obama's administration has defended the swap. The Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously supported the exchange, insisting that the United States has a sacred commitment to men and women who serve that it will never leave anyone behind on the battlefield. 
 
 Meanwhile, Kayla Mueller's mother said in the TV interview that she was still "in denial" about her daughter's death. 
 
 "I still expect Kayla to come through the door," Marsha Mueller said.
– Kayla Mueller's family previously released what was billed as her last letter to them, but now they've released another, and this one is reportedly the final communication they received from her before she was killed while an ISIS captive. Today has it in full. "Once again you are being contacted by prisoners who have been released," it opens. "As I said in my last letter (that I pray you received from the three women) I am OK, healthy, remaining strong and being treated kindly. Do not worry ... I love you all." She goes on to ask them to pray, then shares part of a song she wrote for "little Lex" with the line, "Oh my Grace. I close my eyes, you bring me home." "I look towards the day when I can sing to her the rest. I do not know what you have told her, but if it's appropriate, tell her Auntie Kayla sends her big hugs and kisses," she writes. "Tell her I am very sad that I am far and that we cannot Skype like before, but when I come home we can play, make music together and have so much fun ... She's my little Grace and I love her so much." Once again, she signs the letter, "All my everything, Kayla." Click for the full letter, as well as other writings her family has shared. Mueller's dad, Carl, says in a Today interview that the US put "policy" ahead of a citizen's life. In the same interview, which aired today, Mueller's brother says her situation got worse after the US swapped five Taliban commanders for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May, the AP reports. "That's when the demands got greater," he says. "[ISIS] realized that they had something."