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A Texas student from Haiti decided to put his life on hold to help a baby he found in a trash pile.
Fox 4 News reported that Jimmy Amisial, 27, attended Texas State University as a communications major. In 2017, he returned home to celebrate the new year.
While he was home, he found a baby who was just four months old lying in a trash. The baby, Emilio Angel Jeremiah, is now four years old.
Amisial told Fox 4 News, "You could see him crying, and he had no clothes on, and he had fire ants crawling all over him." Amisial explained that because of Haitian superstitions, no one wanted to help the baby. "No one wanted to touch the baby because they thought the baby was cursed, they were like it's New Year's Eve, the devil is trying to get us," he said.
Amisial didn't hesitate to pick the baby up and take him home. He was later visited by Haitian officers and a judge who asked Amisial, who was 22 years old at the time, if he wanted to be the baby's legal guardian. Amisial recalled, "Even though I didn't know how I was going to take care of him I took a leap of faith by saying yes."
Since adopting Emilio, Amisial has had some financial struggles. The adoption process in Haiti is expensive, but he doesn't regret the journey. He said, "Whenever he's talking to me, he's saying, 'Oh daddy I need this, I need that. I need a tablet, buy me a bike,' He has someone he can go to and ask for stuff and I'm very proud of that."
Through a fundraiser, Amisial raised $60,000 and was able to cover adoption costs. He says his goal now is to bring Emilio to the United States as soon as possible.