A Journey Beyond Expectations

What began as a simple idea - a small binder of thank-you notes - has become something transformative. Instead of just collecting memories, we are witnessing lives changing, hearts healing, and connections being made that many of us never imagined possible.

2026 offers an extraordinary opportunity to carry this work forward. Over the last 18 months, we’ve laid crucial groundwork: organizing archives, identifying their origins, and understanding their significance. Now we’re connecting the dots between stories, records, and lived experiences.

In March 2024, when I received the USAID list of survivors from the C-5A crash, I saw my name on an official record for the first time. It placed me in a specific moment in history. A few months later, while sitting with Sister Mary Nelle, she brought up a stack of files from the basement. When I asked if my file might be there, she simply said, “Somewhere.” The very first folder I opened held a letter written by my mother - her request to adopt. These are profound experiences for an adoptee, and made even more mind-blowing as a survivor of Operation Babylift. 

Down the Rabbit Hole

The past year has been extraordinary, in no small part thanks to donors and sponsors like Torrey House. Our exhibits and galleries opened meaningful conversations, including with students at Regis University whose reflections bridged decades of history. At every event, veterans have shared stories they’ve held for 50 years. Everywhere, new friendships are forming that deepen understanding of Operation Babylift and the lives it forever changed. 

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Imagine being somewhere, hearing one side of a story, realizing you hold the missing piece that can heal decades of unresolved regret and then being able to bring those stories together. It’s extraordinary, and it keeps happening.

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Films like “On Healing Land, Birds Perch” (Naja Lockwood) and “We Were Soldiers, Too” (Thanh Tan) helped expand understanding of South Vietnamese and ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam) experiences, reminding us how incomplete most public narratives have been. It was this awareness of the full scope of history that has completely changed my perspective of the war.

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The Year Ahead

2025 marked 50 years since Viet Nam’s reunification and, for many of us, 50 years since our arrival through Operation Babylift. That reality, paired with the divisiveness of today, reminds us all that love, human connection, and shared truth are more important than ever.

In 2026, we put that into action.

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I’m applying for the Notre Dame Social Innovation Fellowship to develop a Love Ethic Framework for Archival Practice, inspired by bell hooks and grounded in scholarship and lived experience. This work is not simply about archives; it is about how records are delivered, how people are supported through emotional discovery, and how dignity is upheld in telling our shared history.

This means traveling to meet adoptees, collaborating with museums and cultural organizations, engaging with academics, and building systems that honor humanity rather than merely document it. I’ll be hosting community events in 2026, as well as attending the Texas Tech Vietnam Center conference in Hanoi in June and the Society of American Archivists conference in New Orleans in August. These stories will culminate in an anthology to be released on Veterans Day 2026.

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I need your support to tell these crucial stories.

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We will host a four-day gathering, Invisible Threads April 9–12, 2026, centered around a three-week exhibit at East Window Gallery in Boulder, Colorado, a meaningful return to the former home of Friends For All Children and Friends of Children of Viet Nam. The gathering will include:

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• An evening with Sister Mary Nelle Gage

• StoryShare reception with the Operation Babylift community

• Writing workshop and book presentation with Andrew Lam

• BookTalk featuring Operation Babylift authors

• Screening of We Were Soldiers, Too

• Conversation on birth family connection with Huyen Friedlander

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As we close out 2025, I’m asking for your help.

The time is now.

 

Many who cared for us as infants are aging; their legacies remain untold

Many adoptees still long for clarity, grounding, and acknowledgment.

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This project is far more than a notebook of thank-you letters. It is about finding one another. It is about witnessing truth. It is about love, care, and connection. It takes the whole community to make this happen.

How You Can Support

Your donations make this work possible. Contributions will help us:

• Travel to reunite adoptees with their records and histories with care and compassion

• Build a comprehensive records database

• Prepare archives for permanent preservation with dignity

• Participate in essential conferences and learning opportunities 

• Host the Invisible Threads gathering and exhibition

• Produce the Invisible Threads anthology

• Develop and implement the Love Ethic archival framework

• Sustain the operational infrastructure needed to carry this forward 

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Every gift matters 

Your financial support helps fund this project. So does sharing our story, or joining us in Boulder for Invisible Threads. Together, we honor the people who cared for us, the histories that shaped us, and the communities still healing.

Learn more or donate at operationbabylift.org, or contact me directly at devaki@operationbabylift.org (808) 631-9987