Miracle Baby — the story behind Miracles Jar
Too thin a record to say either way.
The account
We were told we couldn't have children. Two strangers prayed over us at a coffee shop — and weeks later, an ocean away, a test in the 'Pharmacy of the Holy Spirit' said otherwise.
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This is the story that started Miracles Jar. It's ours, so we'll tell it plainly and then weigh it as honestly as we weigh everyone else's.
What we were told
In 2016 we found out we couldn't have children naturally. Dana had been in pain for months, and after the specialists had run out of guesses, they operated to see what was happening. Her fallopian tubes were blocked — they tried again and again and couldn't get the dye through. The options on the table were an experimental procedure or IVF. Dana prayed to be healed anyway. We weren't even trying yet, so we mostly set it aside.
The coffee shop
A while later I got dragged to a men's prayer retreat in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. A meeting with an executive had cancelled, so I ended up at a coffee shop with a man I'd just met and a friend of his. Before I'd said anything about our situation, the friend looked at me and said the word "kids" had been put on his heart for me. I explained — politely — that we'd been told it wasn't possible. He said, simply, that he thought it was going to happen now. They prayed, and had me lay my hand on the idea of a child and call it forth. I didn't know what to do with that.
An ocean away
Five weeks later I flew to Genoa to meet Dana, who'd been studying abroad, and we drove up through the Alps. She — a dietitian who lives on salads — smacked my hand away from the menu and asked for bratwurst and fries. My first thought was: you're pregnant. In Salzburg we stopped for a test at the nearest pharmacy. Its name, we later learned, was Apotheke zum Heiligen Geist — the Pharmacy of the Holy Spirit. The result came back Schwanger. We don't speak German. We ran to a translation app to be sure.
Why this site exists
I'm not asking you to take my word for it — that's the whole point. We built Miracles Jar because stories like this deserve more than a shrug or a blind "amen." They deserve to be examined: the documentation laid out, the natural explanation taken seriously, and an honest number attached. So we've done that to our own story too. The records that would raise our confidence are private; the timing is what we can't shake. Make of it what you will — and if you have a story of your own, share it.
Reviewer Notes
We weigh a claim on two things, kept separate from the story above.
Assessed by Miracles Jar AI
A firsthand account from the founders. The timing is striking; the records that would settle it are private — and that tension is exactly why this site exists.
This is our own account, so we hold it to the same honesty as every other claim. In its favor: a surgery reportedly confirmed Dana's fallopian tubes were fully blocked, and the only window we could have conceived lined up with the day we were prayed for. Against it: blocked tubes do not make conception impossible, and spontaneous pregnancies happen without explanation. We have not published the medical records, so confidence is low by our own standard — even though, to us, it changed everything.
Evidence ledger — what the verdict rests on
A surgical procedure reportedly confirmed Dana's fallopian tubes were completely blocked, with dye unable to pass.
As recounted by the family; records not public.
The only day conception was plausible coincided with the day the couple was prayed over.
Blocked fallopian tubes reduce but do not eliminate the chance of natural conception; unexplained pregnancies occur.
The assessment rests on personal testimony rather than reviewable medical documentation.
What would raise this score: Independent documentation shrinking the coincidence window (timestamps, third-party records) would move this.
What would lower it: Evidence the timing window was wider than reported would move it down.
How this works
We keep two questions apart on purpose — so a thin record can’t make an impossible thing look proven, and a strong record can’t dress up an ordinary one as a miracle. First: Could nature explain it? (taking the account as true for the moment.) The question is whether nature could produce this at all — assuming, for the moment, the events are true as described. Second: is there real evidence it happened? A claim only stands out when both hold up — and we never call anything certain either way. How ratings work →
The natural explanation
The leading natural account for this case is coincidence & the law of truly large numbers. Read what it explains — and where it stops.
Sources
Tagged by proximity to the event. Primary sources are direct or contemporaneous; tertiary are downstream retellings.
- 1.Primarytestimony
"Firsthand testimony of the site's founders (Josh & Dana)"· no public link
Primary account from those involved; supporting medical records are private.
Cases like this
Nearest on the map — similar in how miraculous they’d be, and how strong the evidence is.