Miracles happen every day to people from all walks of life. From medical miracles to answered prayers, to divine intervention, these stories will deepen your faith and give you hope — that good things do happen to good people.

In our book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Believe in Miracles, we have 101 true stories from ordinary people who have had extraordinary experiences, their lives forever changed by a miracle.

Here are previews of two of my favorite stories from the book that show you how to find the miracles in your life:

Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need.
In her story ""The Rosary in Mom's Purse" Gloria Caviglia was trying to get her two children back to college, prepare her eighth-grade classroom for another year of teaching, and take care of her terminally ill mother. Hospice assured them that she was receiving the correct doses of medication but her mom was in terrible pain.

Gloria couldn’t understand why God would let her mother suffer this way. Nevertheless, she and her husband needed to leave to take one of their children to college, so off they went in her mother’s car. Her son had pointed out that her mother’s purse was in the car before they left, but for some reason Gloria decided to leave it there.

As they drove home after the drop-off, Gloria asked her husband to stop at the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, NY. There she found a shrub covered with rosaries in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Gloria wished she had a rosary with her, so that she could pray for her mother and leave it with the other ones. Then she remembered her mother’s purse in the trunk of the car. Her mother always kept religious items in there. Maybe there was a rosary.

Sure enough, there was a rosary and Gloria prayed with it, asking for her mother’s pain to be taken away so that she could die in peace. Gloria’s mom died three months later, to the surprise of the medical professionals never having needed pain meds again.

Look for signs from the people you’ve lost.
In Jan Bono's story "I Asked for a Sign" she and her fiancé were sitting on a rock at the beach, watching the sea turtles, and discussing a very difficult topic—his terminal disease. He asked Jan to make sure she brought some of his ashes to this spot on this beautiful tropical island. Jan promised but said she needed something from him too; she needed him to send her a sign from the other side, something so big and amazing and specific that she couldn’t miss it.

Two years later, Jan was back on that island with a small pouch of his ashes. “I’m here,” she said. “Now bring me some turtles.” Then she read him a long love letter and when she looked up there were two turtles right in front of her. They rolled on their sides, their fins lifting clear of the water as if they were saluting.

Moments later, a yellow butterfly came and circled just above Jan’s head before disappearing into the trees. Jan thought all she needed to make her day complete was a hummingbird even though hummingbirds were not indigenous to that island. Instead, seconds later, a red-crested cardinal fluttered to the sand at the end of her beach towel and paraded back and forth in front of her. Then the signs kept coming. On the way out of the parking lot, a car came out of nowhere and cut in front of her with a license plate that read “LCB.” That was the nickname her fiancé had called her—LCB for Little Cuddle Bear. Back at the hotel, she found four pennies in the parking lot between the car and the room.

The ultimate sign came when Jan visited one of the many art galleries near the hotel. They had a wall with an enormous photograph from the area. When Jan sat down to look at it, she couldn’t help but squeal, because it was a photo of the very rock she had sat on earlier that day when she released the ashes into the water. Jan had fulfilled her promise by bringing her love’s ashes back to this island, and he had come through for her—with numerous definitive signs.