In March 2013, Dr. Dave Mierzwiak and his wife Kathleen had the opportunity to be a host family for a 19-month-old boy, Achiga, from Haiti who had several medical needs. The original plan was for him to return to Haiti and his biological family after recovering from surgeries to correct a birth defect. However, after two years, Achiga still had issues requiring ongoing medical management not available in Haiti.
Thanks to unselfish love, his biological parents were willing to allow the Mierzwiaks to adopt Achiga, allowing him to receive the health care necessary for his survival. His father’s primary request was for the Mierzwiaks to help their son love Jesus.
While complicated, the Mierzwiaks were able to legally adopt Achiga in July 2015, allowing him to honor his biological family by continuing to use their last name.
Nine years and 11 surgeries later, Achiga is thriving in all ways, as his story notes.
This is the updated story of a blessed and lucky kid from Port au Prince, Haiti.
”My name is Achiga M Dor. I am a 13-year-old, Haitian-American who came to America 11 years ago for medical reasons. Once those needs were addressed, my American family was able to adopt me. Now, I have a passport and am an American citizen.
I am involved in a variety of athletics and honors classes at St. John’s Jesuit Academy. My sports are track, soccer, and basketball, and my favorite school subjects are social studies and science.
Adventurous and rambunctious are only two adjectives that describe me.
In my free time, I prefer to play video games, hang out with my friends, and swim. Some of the foods I like to eat are burgers, chicken, and pizza. My top restaurants are Sean’s Irish Tavern, Ventura’s and Byblos. Mr. Freeze is my favorite place to enjoy dessert and snacks.
We have a lakehouse on Lake Erie with a beach. I love to bring my friends there to have sleepovers and enjoy boating, tubing, and lots of swimming. I have a total of six brothers, six sisters, and one niece.
I am very thankful to be here now, but my family back in Haiti is always in my heart and on my mind.
Even though I am thankful for being able to come to America, sometimes I wish I could have stayed in Haiti so I could be with my biological family. We used to Skype once a month but it has become difficult as my biological mom has to travel to the mission site due to all of the civil unrest in Haiti.
We have had fundraisers for Haiti before and the community raised enough money to build a home for my family. I still want to help more.”
“Knowing and loving this little boy has changed me forever. My faith is stronger, my vision is clearer and my love is deeper. Achiga has made us better people and I can’t think of a better gift to receive from this little boy who trusted us to care and love him. Looking back, I am so blessed that we were not shackled by fear of the unknown and opened our hearts and home to him. Otherwise, we would have never experienced the great love of Achiga,” offered his adopted mother, Kathleen Mierzwiak, when she thought he was going to return to Haiti.
His adopted dad, Dr. Dave Mierzwiak noted, “How much Achiga has grown is amazing. Achiga has grown emotionally and has become a very fantastic young man. His compassion for how much he wants to help Haiti is strong. And we are committed to helping Achiga’s biological family, as well.”
Both adoptive parents agree that they are happy to be able to provide Achiga with an education that he would not have had available to him.
“Achiga is intuitive to other people and easy to make friends with. He smiles and radiates joy. I feel with a great education and strong faith, Achiga will follow his heart and give back to his homeland. It’s important to keep Achiga’s family in our lives through correspondence such as Facebook, email, messaging, and Skype. Remembering Achiga’s mother and father’s gift to us to raise him to know and love Christ is our greatest hope for him,” she added.
The Mierzwiaks and Achiga continue to plan fundraisers and awareness-raising events to help the Dor family and others in Haiti.