The Boss Level: Fifteen Stories of Miracles and Hope

The Boss Level brings together fifteen true accounts of people encountering extraordinary help during medical crises, accidents, grief, financial uncertainty, family struggles, and other moments when ordinary strength did not feel sufficient. The first volume began as a charitable project supporting another family’s fertility treatments and grew into a three-volume series of modern miracle stories.

Originally published December 6, 2021. Substantially revised and expanded July 2026.

The Original Charitable Purpose

The original release included a direct fundraising appeal for a specific family seeking fertility treatment. That campaign has ended, and the old payment request is no longer active. The history still matters because it explains why contributors shared deeply personal experiences and why the book was organized around giving hope to another family.

My own family had received similar generosity. A donor helped pay for fertility treatment that brought our daughter Maggie into our lives. Her arrival was followed by another crisis when my wife’s water broke seventeen weeks early. Maggie survived despite frightening odds and became the joyful center of the title story.

The “boss level” is the part of the journey that appears impossible—until courage, skilled help, faith, community, and unexpected mercy carry someone through it.

The Fifteen Stories in Volume I

1. “The Boss Level” by Michael D. Young

My title story recounts the chain of generosity and medical intervention that brought Maggie into our family. A donor helped make fertility treatment possible, and then a dangerously early rupture of membranes placed the pregnancy at risk. The story follows the fear, uncertainty, and improbable survival that transformed an abstract hope for a child into a daughter we could hold.

2. “A Medical Miracle” by Norma Pyper Mitchell

Norma describes a summer of severe medical struggles that changed both her life and the practice of medicine around her. Her experience placed her at the edge of emerging treatment in a way that may have influenced care later received by many other patients and families.

3. “Tender Mercies” by Betsy Love

A car crashed into Betsy’s house in the middle of the day. The account centers not only on the violence of the impact but on the remarkable significance of who was not standing where they normally would have been when the vehicle entered the home.

4. “A Pattern of Miracles” by Kyle and Chelsea Woodruff

This husband-and-wife account follows a house fire and other disasters that might have overwhelmed their family. Intervention from people around them repeatedly arrived at critical moments, turning separate acts of help into a pattern they could recognize only by looking back.

5. “The Miracle of Grace” by Sydney Hill

Sydney writes about a little girl named Grace whose life was brief but deeply meaningful. The story does not pretend that loss becomes easy when faith is present. Instead, it explores how one child’s life can continue shaping a family after death and how hope can coexist with grief.

6. “The PHP Fairytale” by Cami Shaskin

Cami’s unusual romance begins through circumstances connected with the programming language PHP. The story traces the large and small events that brought two people together and made a technology-centered meeting feel like an unexpectedly modern fairy tale.

7. “Our Mortgage” by Cami Shaskin

Continuing the family story begun in “The PHP Fairytale,” Cami describes the circumstances that allowed her and her husband to find a home where their family could grow. The account focuses on provision arriving through timing and opportunities they could not have arranged alone.

8. “My Real-Life Miracle” by an Anonymous Contributor

The contributor was born with significant physical and cognitive challenges and received discouraging predictions about education and independence. The story follows the long process of defying those expectations and progressing toward an honors degree in computer science.

9. “Scarlet’s Miracle” by Brae Lee Bennion

Brae recounts a freak accident at home that left her daughter Scarlet fighting for her life. The crisis becomes a setting for receiving help, confronting helplessness, and developing a deeper understanding of her relationship with Heavenly Father.

10. “Jesse’s Story” by Douglas Allan

Douglas writes about his brother Jesse, whose life changed suddenly when an intense medical condition left him almost completely paralyzed. Jesse survived and continued to build a meaningful life, using limited physical ability to bless others in ways that challenged expectations about what he could accomplish.

11. “Hope Over Reason” by Bonni Mergenthaler

After a miscarriage, Bonni became pregnant again while facing a frightening medical diagnosis. Her story follows the emotional movement between fear and hope and the way uncertainty deepened her reliance on God rather than providing an immediate, uncomplicated answer.

12. “Leaning on the Promise” by Marta O. Smith

Following surgery to repair her esophagus, Marta continued to experience terrible pain and shortness of breath. Additional medical attention did not initially resolve the problem. The help she needed arrived through an unlikely source and required her to keep seeking answers when the expected path failed.

13. “A Gift from the Past” by Madonna D. Christensen

A Catholic woman searching for a new rosary receives one with unexpected personal significance. The object becomes more than a devotional tool: it creates a connection between faith, memory, and a gift that seems to cross time.

14. “A Heavenly Welcome” by Madonna D. Christensen

Madonna shares the story of her sister Billie, who lived with Alzheimer’s disease. Near the end of Billie’s life, the family received remarkable comfort through an experience that connected generations and helped them imagine her transition as a welcome rather than only a loss.

15. “A House and Four Miracles” by Linda Beauvais

Linda’s account begins with the opportunity to buy back a former home while raising four children on her own. That provision becomes the first in a series of four events she identifies as miracles. The original spotlight did not summarize the remaining three events, leaving the full story to the anthology.

Different Meanings of Miracle

The stories do not all use the word miracle in exactly the same way. For some contributors, it describes survival that seemed medically unlikely. For others, it means protection through timing, an answer found after expected solutions failed, the arrival of generous people, or spiritual comfort that did not remove grief.

That range matters. A collection of miracle stories can become emotionally dishonest when every account ends with the outcome the person originally wanted. Several stories in The Boss Level involve permanent disability, death, miscarriage, illness, or consequences that remain real. Hope does not require rewriting those losses as victories.

Editing Personal Testimony with Care

• Preserve the contributor’s interpretation. The editor can improve clarity without claiming authority over what the experience meant to the person who lived it.
• Respect medical and family privacy. Not every identifying detail belongs in print.
• Avoid promising identical outcomes. One person’s recovery does not guarantee another person will receive the same result.
• Let grief remain grief. Faith and sorrow can appear together.
• Check names, titles, and sensitive facts carefully. Small editorial errors can be painful in stories involving real people.

From One Volume to a Series

The project continued beyond the first fifteen stories. The Boss Level now includes three volumes, each collecting true accounts of people finding help, hope, grace, and meaning in circumstances they could not fully control. All three volumes are also available as audiobooks.