"I am convinced that God chooses and enables children who are not wanted or loved by the world, but who are very much wanted and loved by God.'"
It was the year 2002 when a migrant woman gave birth to a boy in Madrid. After two days, she left the hospital and had nowhere to go. Conrado Giménez found her, her baby, and the baby's father on the street and rescued them. Gimenez had just founded the Godmother Foundation (Fundación Madrina), an organization that helps pregnant women and babies.
David, when he was a baby, with his mother
Gentileza Fundación Madrina
At that time, Giménez was still alone in his work. It was only recently, he says, that he "had seen that God was asking me to leave my job at the bank and organize the work that today is the Godmother Foundation."
What he least expected was to receive a letter one day from one of the rescued babies he helped to have a chance in life. "It had never happened to me," he admits.
On December 28, Conrado received "without a doubt the best Christmas present I could have received," which brought tears to his eyes: a letter from that baby he had helped in 2002, now a 20-year-old man named David.
Conrado Giménez saw that God was asking him to leave his job in the world of finance and help pregnant women and babies.
Fundación Madrina
David's letter
This is the letter:
Letter to my godfather:
Today marks 20 years since you came into our lives. I was barely 2 days old, just out of the hospital, and although I have no memory of that encounter, my mother raised me telling me over and over again about that moment.
They were young, in a strange country and thousands of miles away from their relatives.
A series of unfortunate events left them on the street, with a newborn child in the middle of December. My mother never stops thanking me, because that day I was the bravest of the family; during the 17 hours they were wandering the streets of Madrid, she told me, I didn’t open my mouth even once. I just looked with huge eyes at those two adults who wandered aimlessly and dissolved into tears at times.
An angel who came out of nowhere
David continues the story:
I know it was hard. I see it in her face every time she tells me about that day. But suddenly I see her face light up when she remembers you, because she tells me how ... all of a sudden ... YOU appeared.
(You were) an angel come from heaven to dry her tears, a superhero and not exactly the kind with a cape, but with warm hands and a tender smile.
They say that life is measured in the moments that leave you breathless, but it’s not true; life is measured in the people who lend you their own air, when a hard knock leaves you breathless.
How nice it is after a disaster to encounter someone who finally understands and values you.
How nice to fall down and find big hands ready to pick you up.
How nice the pride of those who bet on you from the beginning.
How nice that there are people who don’t need to hear your explanations because they simply trust you.
How nice is your honesty and how nice to love without conditions, without measure, without demands.
David is now 20 years old.
Gentileza Fundación Madrina.
I admire uncomplicated people like you, how great you are!! I admire people who have things to say even if they don't speak much, people who are beacons who help souls lost in the darkness to find a way, people who applaud and rejoice in the success of others.
(...)
I admire people who leave, but always remain. Because I grew up far away from you, but I always felt you were very present. Thanks to you I have understood that life will always go on so we can continue writing new chapters, because happiness is also there and it also comes back. (...) Because I deserve it and you deserve it. I read it on my mother's face every time she pronounces your name.
To me you are a superhero, and not exactly the caped kind, putting yourself on the line every day to help thousands of women in incredibly screwed up situations. Sorry for the expression, but I know you understand it better than anyone else.
You have the gift of knowing how to touch the right key to make hearts pump with enthusiasm and hope, so that those children who are born are able to smile in situations that should never have come to be. (...)
Thank you for never giving up, for spending hours and hours solving emergencies in hundreds and hundreds of cases, knowing how to act and reassure in every moment. Thank you for so many doses of hope.
"Thanks to you I am a survivor"
David explains how his attitude towards life is today, knowing how his beginnings were. He thanks Conrado Giménez in a very special way:
Thanks to you, today I’m a young man who makes his way with the calm and confidence that you transmit in a world which is not always favorable.
Thanks to you I’m a survivor, one of those who go forward slowly but steadily, because I plan to go far. I’m one of those people who enjoy every moment and hold on to the best of my experiences, because thanks to you, all the best will always bear your name.
There are 20 years in all these words but there will be many more to write.
Meanwhile, I keep you in my soul and heart.
David
The Godmother Foundation is today a consolidated organization, which has been helping pregnant women, mothers and babies at risk for 22 years.
His mother asked God for a very special wish
Conrado Giménez is thrilled to have received this letter of thanks. He wanted to reply briefly to David's words, saying:
Thank you, my little David. It’s worth dying every day to give life, because “every child that is born carries a message. God has not yet lost hope in man.”
I remember saying to your mother, in front of Our Lady in the chapel, “Because of the act of love that you performed by saying ‘yes,’ God will grant you whatever you want for your son. I remember, Ioana, that you asked God for little David to be a pope.”
I am convinced that “God chooses and enables children who are not wanted or loved by the world, but who are very much wanted and loved by God.'
