A Million Little Miracles

by Aubree Snipes

At 21, a light switch flipped inside of me and my life drastically changed.
It was the first of a million little miracles. 

I was raised in church, but church is only one day of the week...and life at home was rough. 

My biological dad left my mom while she was pregnant with me, leaving her to raise me on her own.
In 4th grade, I was adopted by her husband, my now dad, and gained two sisters overnight.
Then, my parents had three more children.

A few years later, I walked away from the wholesome friends I had, and that was the start of a path of bad decisions. By choosing different friends, I would have saved myself from years of searching.

At ten, I realized that my parent’s marriage was not the happy marriage that I believed it to be. Abuse and arguments became regular occurrences. I can remember wanting and needing to do homework, but all of the kids would come crawl into my bed while our parents fought. We would sit together with the radio up to drown out their noise.

At the time, my mom’s faith told her to hold on to marriage, so we continued to go through the motions that a “family” would. My mom and dad eventually separated, and my mom went from being a stay-at-home mom to a single mom working three jobs.

Meanwhile, I moved to college and began filling my gaps with boys, parties, and alcohol. 

I maintained my life with three jobs, running from our reality and driving myself into the ground. My health deteriorated and I was finally sent for testing. The diagnosis was pure exhaustion, and although nothing came of it, I decided to move back home. 

All that time, there was no pull to go back to church. I knew somewhere in me that I would go back when I was ready, sometime later in life. Besides, church felt distant and God seemed unable to be reached.

The night I turned twenty one, God began getting my attention. I went out that night and ended up going home early, already sick from celebrating. I stayed sick until late into the next day, feeling like I was covered in a fog. My feelings forced me to shut down and I completely isolated myself, refusing to answer calls or texts. 

Thinking back on those few days, it’s as if God was subduing my full being so that He could move within me. 

This became my Saul to Paul moment.
My moment of complete lifestyle change.
My moment where Jesus changed who I was being and how I was living.
My first little miracle.

A few days later, on a Sunday morning, I went back to church.
I walked in feeling unworthy...a feeling that I would have never registered before.
My heart was getting ready for God to move.

I know that Sunday morning was a turning point for my life, career, and future.
I was a sinner who realized she needed more than the world would ever provide.
I never answered another phone call from my past.

I shut down my old lifestyle, walked away from the pull towards addiction, and walked straight to Jesus. 

I got involved in church, but still needed new friends. I had a few adult friends, but I didn’t know how to find people my age who had the same priorities. I went a year and a half alone, but steadily walking forward, when I was invited to a college night.
Another little miracle. 

There I found healthy, godly, and encouraging friendships.
The kind I should have never walked away from as a teenager.

At this point, I was making good choices, I was pursuing Christ with good friends...now I needed God to bring me a husband. Feelings from the past started to creep in and I wondered who would want me with the past I carried around. 

Carrie Hunt, a mentor and friend, said she was going to introduce me to a youth leader from another church at a youth camp we were attending. I remember seeing Carrie talking to a guy during camp that week, knowing it had to be him. I walked right up to them and interrupted their conversation. He looked over at me, said “Hi,” and looked away almost dismissively.

Shut down for what felt like the first time in my life, I thought, “He must know. He must know my past.”

A whole year went by. I got engaged after ignoring red flags of addiction.
Then, I called it off after seeing the truth.

I was left not knowing which direction to take, until an opportunity landed in my lap.
Our pastor asked if I wanted to go to Thailand to teach ESL.
Little miracle.

I felt like this was my first moment to surrender and be obedient for God’s purpose. After praying and contemplating, I decided that I was all in. In a few months, I would quit my job, board a plane to Thailand, and put all of my safety and security in God’s plan. 

Meanwhile, Carrie tried one more time to introduce me and this guy. After a few online conversations, he asked me to meet him at a basketball tournament. After a few more hangouts, I knew, “I’m gonna marry this man.”

As our relationship deepened, issues from my past crept in again and insecurities flooded my thoughts:
How is this going to work when I’m halfway across the world? If I go, he will leave me.
How is he actually going to love me with my past? If he sees me, he will leave me.

With every conversation we had, my insecurities were quieted and my true identity was seen. He never judged me from my past. He never made me feel unworthy or less than. He never kept me from where God was calling me to go. He joked with me, “If you don’t go to Thailand, I will break up with you.”
He gave me the sense of security that I needed. I was all in.
More little miracles. 

In the background, my health had still been up and down. Before leaving for Thailand, I had testing done that came back with irregular results. I was already in Thailand when the results came back and coming home wasn’t in my plan. My white blood cell count was high, and cervical cancer was talked about.

Before leaving the states, I had heard a still small voice say, “When you step foot on that plane you will be healed.” Not knowing my results at that time, I dismissed that word and went on with the work that had to be done.

Several weeks into my time in Thailand, a 93 year old woman, the oldest in my ESL classes, met the pastor's wife early one morning at the church. Typically, I was with her early, but I didn’t arrive as early as usual that day. She pulled up to the church on her bike and was met by the pastor's wife outside. With tears and sweat streaming down her face she said, “God spoke to me last night, I don’t know why me. He woke me from sleep to tell me ‘Aubree was healed when she stepped foot on the plane.’”

No one else knew about my testing. No one knew about the results.
But God moved and healed me during my walk in obedience.
A little miracle.

Since then, my family has walked closely to God, watching Him work in our lives.
We have seen Him move mountains and we have walked with Him in valleys. 
We have seen God heal and we have felt pain.

Johnathan and I got married and prepared to start a family.
Because of my health, we were unsure that I would be able to get pregnant...until we did.
Miracle.

However, the day we planned to announce our pregnancy, we had to announce that I had lost the baby.
Months later, I was pregnant again with Maddox.
God turned dangerously low levels into a perfectly healthy baby boy.
A little miracle.

Then, we got pregnant with Memphis.
She was a healthy baby until two weeks into life and we were faced with Severe Combined Autoimmune Disorder. After a week of more testing, we awaited the results that would change our life forever as life in the hospital would be her only chance of survival. We got a call and were told to wait for a call from Texas Children’s when they had a room for us. Within a few very long hours, we got a call, but not from the hospital. It was our doctor’s office saying the results were reread and she was negative for this life ending disease.
She was healed.
A little miracle. 

Five years later, I got pregnant again.
This time with twins. Two separate sacks, two little heart beats.
At 12 weeks, we found that we had lost one of our babies. After long months of begging God to give me back my baby, I finally came to the peace that there was only one baby in my womb.

While God didn’t deliver both babies, Miles is here.
He is whole, and he is healthy.
It took a lot of prayer and worship to reach that perspective, but I can see now that he is a miracle.

I can’t imagine walking through our numerous health scares and heartaches without Christ.
In the moments of pain and uncertainty, God is and has been good.
In the moments of healing and victory, God is and has been good.

I am thankful for the day that God turned my life around.
Since that day, He has been too good and too close to disprove.

Even when it looked like death, I knew He was working.
Even when He didn’t deliver the answer we hoped for, I knew He was good. 

His miracles and faithfulness are things I just cannot deny.
His presence and His goodness is something I simply cannot doubt
...because I have seen a million little miracles. 

God is a good Father who wants to work miracles in our lives.
He wants our lives to show His goodness and His grace.
He wants our lives to display His glory.

But we have to give Him room to move first.
We have to get out of our own way.
We have to stop walking with the world.
We have to walk away from our sin.
We have to stop making life harder than it has to be. 

I never thought I would end up with an extraordinary marriage.
I never thought I would be pregnant or have healed kids.
I never thought I would have a family that was whole. 

But by turning away from parties, drinking, and boys at 21, I gave God control to write my story.

I love Exodus 14:14: “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still”
Every day is a battle for our peace, our health, our relationship,
but I’ve seen what stillness, trust, and faith can do for a big God.
He moves in the stillness

He has turned my life around and worked a million little miracles...and He wants to do the same for you.