KWED Christmas Angel selects 2023 winner
(Seguin) — A family’s integrity while experiencing hardship is what sets apart the Ortiz Family. Asael, his wife Melinda, and their one-year-old daughter, Miracle Grace, have all been selected as this year’s KWED Christmas Angel contest winner.
The family was announced the winner live on the air Thursday morning.
Despite a challenging two years, the family’s ability to stay strong and remain faithful landed them with the $500 cash prize. If chosen, contest rules state that the person who wrote the letter must read their words live to the winner on Seguin Radio KWED.
Nominating the Ortiz family was Katherine Biediger, the baby boutique volunteer at the South Texas Pregnancy Care Center.
In her letter to the family, Biediger reads, “Melinda and Asael Ortiz had been married for about 17 years when Asael suffered a life altering stroke at the age of 38. The stroke paralyzed Asael’s right side. It made walking difficult, took away his ability to speak and affected the use of his right arm. Unable to continue working, Melinda stood by him and helped him on his journey to recovery. They had always wanted to add children to their family, but now believed they would not be blessed with children. Their hopes and dreams faded. Then, they were sent a miracle: Melinda was pregnant. She made it through her pregnancy while helping her husband with loving care and prayers for his recovery. God gave them a little girl whom they named Miracle Grace.”
Biediger, who has worked closely alongside the family at the pregnancy care center, continued her letter on the air sharing the couple’s kindness and no quit attitude.
Her letter continues, “Asael is showing progress with therapy. However, Melinda is unable to work outside the home as she is the caregiver for Asael and Miracle Grace. They survive on disability checks and modest living.
They faithfully attend classes at South Texas Pregnancy Care Center, earning points to shop in the Baby Boutique for items for their daughter. They are a loving and God-fearing family who are doing the best that they can. They are so thankful for STPCC’s support. Even though they struggle with the necessities of life, they spread warmth and cheer to all they meet.”
Unable to fight the tears, Melinda shared her appreciation to Katherine and everyone at the pregnancy care center.
“I’m sorry. I am so emotional. That is beautiful. Thank you so much. It’s what we lived. It’s our testimony to be honest. We’ve always been at the end of things with the Lord and we were born and raised in church and so our faith is all we had when this hardship came to us — when we were put into this situation and we have just seen the Glory of God in everything and like she said, when I came out pregnant, I was shocked first of all because out of all these years, we had been praying for a child and we wanted this child so bad and it wasn’t time and when this came, I wasn’t worried about a child anymore. I wanted to take care of my husband. I wanted to make sure he was on the right track to get where he needed to be and mind wasn’t there so when this came, when I found out I was pregnant, it was emotional. What am I going to do? How are we going to do this? But I knew also in the back of my mind, God gave this to me. It’s a gift from God and he’s going to provide every step of the way and that’s what he’s done absolutely,” said Melinda.
Melinda says while their journey has been difficult, she doesn’t know where she would be without the center. She says nominating her family for the Christmas Angel contest is just one more way that her family continues to feel the love.
“I didn’t even know about them to be honest. I grew here my whole life and didn’t know that there was a place like this. Somebody had mentioned it to me. We didn’t have insurance. We weren’t working. They rejected me. I had Texas Women Health at that time and they were like ‘no, we don’t take care of pregnancies.’ And I’m like what am I going to do now? So, somebody reached out to me and said ‘try this place.’ And from that moment that that phone rang, there’s been nothing but love there. There’s been nothing but support there. Everything that we needed has been supplied for us. They don’t judge there. They don’t belittle you. They treat you like family and I’m so appreciative of this place like they have just given us everything that we need from Pampers to dressing our daughter to just everything we could buy at Walmart but just don’t have the money,” said Melinda.
Everything up to this point has been God’s work. Melinda says there’s just no other way. She says God does not forget nor does He leave you alone.
“When I was called about this. I was in shock and emotional because He knows our necessities. He knows our needs and at a time like this, when you want to give for everybody who has supported you, everybody who has been there along the way because we used to have. We had full-time jobs and we had money years ago to give and now, it’s kind of sad because you can’t even give a little bit, a little gift to a lot of family but they understand that,” said Melinda.
Photos and the entire Christmas Angel letter can be found in Friday’s edition of the Seguin Daily News available at SeguinToday.com.
The KWED Christmas Angel again thanks all those who submitted entries in this year’s contest and looks forward to spreading even more Christmas spirit in 2024.
