Liz and Michael Leppert share a lot.
They share a love of God and a love for their 20-year-old daughter. They share tears and prayers.
Now, they also share kidneys.
On Oct. 28, 2016, the couple went into the hospital together, into separate operating rooms. They were reunited the next day after one of Michael’s kidneys was transplanted into Liz.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]It’s quite rare that a spouse is a match, Liz said.
And this wasn’t the first time a family member had become her donor.
When Liz was 10, her kidneys failed, and she received a transplant from her father, George Wetzel. That kidney worked for 34 years until Liz began noticing signs of failure.
Her daughter, Hannah, who was 19 at the time, went through testing and was a match.
But Michael didn’t want his daughter to go through a transplant at a young age if he could do it instead.
“She has her whole life ahead of her,” Liz said. “He said, ‘I’ve lived a pretty good life.’”
“It was a pretty overwhelming love that I felt for him, and it was just like, ‘He wants to do this for me?’” she said.
“He laid down his life there and did it.”
The fact that Michael was also a match was “overwhelming love from the Lord,” Liz said.
“It was a godsend, I know. We’re Christian people. God just worked it out, the way he put us together in life,” Liz said.
An ‘automatic attraction’
Valentine’s Day 2017 was the 28th anniversary of the couple’s first date.When they met, Michael was friend of Liz’s brother, and he would often come up to visit when he moved to Kentucky after living in Indiana.
“It was like an automatic attraction,” Liz said.
“I like his honesty, his loyalty to me. … At first he was real quiet and just kind of not real outgoing, but with me, we had a good time. … It helped because he was good looking, too,” she added with a laugh.
The two dated for seven years before getting married.
Their only daughter, Hannah, is now 20, and Liz calls her a blessing as well. Liz wasn’t supposed to have children because she’d already had a kidney transplant, she said.
Hannah describes her parents as “soulmates.” She said their example has influenced her, especially after the surgery.
“When I saw how a man can love a woman, now I have such a higher expectations for the men in my life,” she said.
‘We’ve done it all together’
Before the couple could do the transplant surgery, they had to go through testing and lose weight. They shared that journey together, too.“We did everything together. We did eating right together. Because we’re husband and wife, we’ve done it all together. That’s what’s been so amazing. We healed together. We sit together and watch Netflix and heal together. We’ve cried together,” Liz said.
“It’s even hard to explain the love and the bond.”
The day of the transplant, the couple was peaceful, she said.
“I think we were both focusing on (each other). I was focusing on not letting him know that I might be scared. He was focusing on being strong for me,” Liz said.
Before Michael was wheeled away to have his kidney removed, “we had a pretty emotional moment,” Liz said. “We hugged and cried and told each other we loved each other.”
Liz will never forget what Michael said: “Here he is, going to have his kidney cut out of him, and he looks at me and says, ‘This is going to be a walk in the park.’”
Hannah took off months from work to care for her parents.
“I decided to sacrifice my time because they did it for me for so long, and they raised me. The least I could do is be there for them when they needed me,” she said.
With the help of their daughter, the couple healed together.
“It was very difficult, but difficult things make stronger people,” Hannah said.
Even though there is a possibility Liz’s body could also reject this kidney one day, the family has faith.
Faith, Liz said, is what kept her and Michael together all of these years.
“You have to have faith and not worry. Put your trust in something bigger than yourself,” Hannah said.
