Texas student is adopting baby he found covered in ants in trash can: 'I took a leap of faith'

Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 15, 2022. It has since been updated.

Jimmy Amisial was visiting his home country in Haiti when he heard the screams of a baby coming from a trash can. The 4-month-old baby was covered in ants in the trash and in terrible pain. People stood around but didn't do anything to save the baby. “Everyone was just staring at him—not a single soul wanted to help,” recalled Amisial of the incident that took place during a 2017 visit to his home country. “He was crying and had no clothes on and I could see the pain in his eyes—I had to do something." He intervened and took the baby home. Amisial and his mother, Elcie, cleaned the baby boy and fed him. He sought assistance from the authorities to help find the baby's parents but to no avail, reported The Daily Mail. His mother was shocked at him bringing home a baby but wanted to do everything to help the baby in pain and comfort him.

They took him to the doctor for a check-up and fortunately, there were no serious injuries apart from the ant bites. But the investigations led nowhere and the baby's future seemed clouded. Amisial, who was a student, decided to step in and requested legal guardianship before naming the child Emilio Angel Jeremiah. Amisial was a communication and electronic media student at Texas State University. He was always drawn toward helping the less fortunate. He used to regularly buy gifts for the children of an orphanage he volunteered when he was a teenager. When Amisial headed back to Texas to continue his education, his mother cared for the baby in Haiti. Amisial started traveling back and forth with increasing frequency to spend more time with the baby. "I’m glad that I got the opportunity to transform his life from being abandoned in the trash to a wonderful treasure," he said.  

“When I was asked to raise him, I stayed awake for days tossing and turning, trying to make a decision. I was already behind on my university fees, and my family has always struggled to make ends meet,” said Amisial. He thought back to his own childhood and his experience of not growing up with a dad to help him come to a decision. "I didn’t have a dad growing up, and this poor child was facing a lifetime of instability and uncertainty. Something inside was telling me that this had happened for a reason—so I took a leap of faith. Sometimes, you don’t have to know what to do; you just have to be ready to do it,” he said.

Jeremiah is now five years old and Amisial is hoping to raise money to finalize the adoption process. After nearly four and a half years since rescuing Jeremiah, he shares a very close bond with the child and says he "loves him as if he were [his] own," reported The Mirror. He requires $60,000 to adopt Jeremiah. “It’s been an incredible journey and watching him grow up has been so rewarding—I’m very proud of him,” he said. “I had to do what I had to do when no one else wanted to do it, and I’m so grateful for the past four and a half years.” Amisial has started a GoFundMe campaign to adopt Jeremiah. "One thing I know is that you can never go wrong when you choose to love. It was those divine moments and interventions to show love, and clarity and show the world that we can do better."