Visiting family in Haiti in 2017, then-22-year-old Texas State University student Jimmy Amisial heard a desperate sound coming from a pile of trash.
Someone had left a baby there to die.
“You could see him crying, and he had no clothes on, and he had fire ants crawling all over him,” Amisial told FOX 26 Houston. “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.’”
Amisial dismissed those superstitions and rescued the child, taking him into his own home and going through the proper legal proceedings to become the baby’s guardian.
“Even though I didn't know how I was going to take care of him I took a leap of faith by saying yes,” Amisial said.
Now 27, Amisial has posted an online fundraiser that has gone viral as he endeavors to complete the expensive legal adoption of Emilio Jeremiah, who is now 4 years old. (The boy currently still resides in Haiti with Amisial’s mother.)
With the money raised, he hopes to bring his son to America once the adoption has been completed, set aside money for the boy’s future and finish his own schooling, after dropping out to support Emilio financially.
However, despite setting his own dreams aside at least temporarily, Amisial said he’d happily do it all again if it means his son is healthy and happy.
“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,” he said.
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