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A Common Faith and a Common Kidney

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In October, young wife and mother, Haley Allen, sent out a desperate plea for someone to save her husband's life.

Noah Allen, 26, needed a kidney. 

"We're the Allen family," Haley wrote in a blog she posted Oct. 15. "We're made up of a hard-working dad, a stay-at-home mom, one precious baby boy and our second son on the way.

"We serve a selfless Savior who's the glue that holds us all together. Yet, we're searching hard for a certain missing piece in this little puzzle called life . . . We're searching for a kidney for my husband."

As a teenager, Noah had been diagnosed with "membranous nephropathy"--a type of  kidney disease that normally sets in much later in life.

About a year after his diagnosis he was in clinical remission. He went on with his life, met Haley, got married, passed the bar exam and took a job in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Then in 2015, only a month after the birth of their first child, Noah's symptoms returned.

His kidney was going "off the deep end," Noah told the Charlotte Observer

Medicine wasn't working, remission was over.

Haley couldn't just sit around and watch her husband deteriorate. 

They asked for prayer from friends, family and their church family -- and then Haley had a new idea.

When the couple learned that the best kidney would be from a living donor, Haley sat down and wrote the blog post that put everything in motion. 

"This is where God has called me. And I need your help. I need prayer warriors. I need advocates. And I need a living donor. We don't know who that living donor is just yet – maybe a family member, maybe a friend, maybe a Good Samaritan.

"But he or she is out there, and we are going to find him or her."

Their modern day Good Samaritan was 25-year-old Wyatt Bardi. He and his wife Amy read Haley's blog post. Amy barely knew Haley--from college and being bridesmaids in a mutual friends wedding. 

"When I first read Haley's blog, I didn't think we'd be more than spectators and folks to pray over their story, and certainly didn't think that we'd get to be used by God as He answered their prayer for a donor," Amy Bardi told CBN News.

Her husband Wyatt didn't know the couple at all. To him, that didn't matter. He saw donating a kidney as a way to live out his Christian faith--to be a loving neighbor--just as Jesus commanded.

Amy and Wyatt prayed, talked and educated themselves on the realities of kidney donation and then they replied to Haley's Facebook post.

"Hi friend!" it began. "I've been keeping up with your blog and your amazing efforts to find a kidney for Noah. ... My husband Wyatt has also been following along. He's A+ and is ready to see if he's a match for Noah," Amy wrote. 

A day or two later, Wyatt was tested and started filling out paperwork.

About a month into the process--a miraculous discovery.

There is something called a tissue typing test required before a kidney transplant. Donors are given three numbers, each judged on a scale of 1-10. Three zeros would signal the donor and donee are, genetically, identical twins. And 1-1-1 would be the numbers for genetic siblings.

Wyatt's score: 1-1-1.

Noah and Wyatt began to refer to each other as "kidney brother."

"The process for determining if I would be a suitable donor candidate was pretty long and involved and I knew I could get rejected at any time  for any number of reasons.  The fact that I made it through that evaluation process at all felt like a major affirmation from God," Wyatt said.

On March 14, 2017 Noah got Wyatt's kidney, a date with a divine meaning for Wyatt's wife Amy. It was supposed to be the due date for their baby--a baby she instead miscarried.

"It was God's grace to remind me that the due date of our miscarried baby fell on the same day of the transplant surgery recovery. It didn't minimize the pain or longing I felt, and it didn't null the grief. Rather, it brought forth beauty from ashes, and redemption to our story of pain. To know that Wyatt's sacrifice would give life to a father of two boys was such a gift of God's grace. He didn't have to give us that insight or redemption here on earth, but He chose to and we are so thankful," Amy said.

Both men faced a grueling recovery--Noah who's developed a high tolerance for pain over the years, was up and moving before Wyatt--he broke down when he saw the pain his new friend was in.

"A piece of you is inside of me," he told his kidney brother. "I'm alive because of you."

Amy shared on Facebook that watching her husband go through the pain of recovery, pain he could have avoided--after all he wasn't the sick one--she was reminded of Jesus.

The couples now share a deep bond, rooted in the sacrificial love that Jesus exemplified and they now live out.

"Noah genuinely feels like my brother.  I love him dearly and we share a really strong and unique connection that's hard to put into words.  It feels like we’ve known each other for years," Wyatt told CBN News.

"Our bond is so special, so complex, so deep, and has been strengthened over hardship and the continued struggle of recovery. Wyatt's kidney may have been a gift to them, but they are God's great gift to us. They are our best friends, our cheerleaders, our brother and sister. Even though we live in different cities, it's apparent how God is using this friendship and this story for His great glory. We're just a group of sinners, imperfect people with imperfect lives, whom God has saved through Jesus and chosen to carry His story of redemption and grace," said Amy.

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About The Author

Caitlin Burke Headshot
Caitlin
Burke

Caitlin Burke serves as National Security Correspondent and a general assignment reporter for CBN News. She has also hosted the CBN News original podcast, The Daily Rundown. Some of Caitlin’s recent stories have focused on the national security threat posed by China, America’s military strength, and vulnerabilities in the U.S. power grid. She joined CBN News in July 2010, and over the course of her career, she has had the opportunity to cover stories both domestically and abroad. Caitlin began her news career working as a production assistant in Richmond, Virginia, for the NBC affiliate WWBT