ILLUMINATION 2022-23: Jodi Willis

Photo credit: Melissa "Mimi" Nolledo

"So I am the second child that my parents adopted through Holt International. My older sister's from South Korea. And then, from my understanding, the fall of Saigon was happening. And my mother said Holt called them. They had been praying for a second baby and she hadn't gotten pregnant yet. And Holt International called them and said, "Hey, we've got 25 babies on their way to America with no homes. Well, you've already gone through the home study program. Would you be interested?" And they said yes… May of 1975. So I was born in March… I should have arrived at the beginning of May. But I got ill with another baby. And so Hawaii was a stop from what I've been reading about Operation-- so it's called Operation Babylift… Which was getting all the babies out of Vietnam… And it was more than just that. I mean, I thought it was just a small little thing that Holt had the only ones who were sponsored. But I actually belong to a Operation Babylift group on Facebook… I realized it was all over the United States and Australia and New Zealand…"