Her post boldly asked for a living kidney donor to be sent their way, so Jason could avoid dialysis and enjoy a healthy life with Ainsleigh and their young children, Connor and Avery.

Robert Sharp, who knew of his neighbors four doors down through an association with Cub Scouts, read the post. They had known each other only a few years since Robert moved to the Atlanta area from Charlottesville, Va. Yet, Robert couldn’t shake Jason’s story.

“She put out a call for folks to consider the living donation process,” Robert says. “There was something about it that just connected with me. The more I thought, the more it occurred to me that this would be a part of him for the rest of his life.”

Unbeknownst to the Barretts, Robert began researching the long process of kidney donation.

“My wife, Lynda, could see that I was committed to and felt called to do this,” Robert says. “We figured out the logistics to make it work.”

About one-third of transplanted kidneys are from living donors. The average wait for a transplant is three to five years. The process to determine compatibility was extensive.

“They run every test on you can imagine,” says Robert, a 19-year State Farm^® employee. “They want to be sure it’s going to be a good match.”

About four months into the process, Robert was still proving to be a match. It was finally time to share exciting news with the Barretts as Jason neared Stage 5 kidney failure.

Nearly a year to the day of Ainsleigh’s post, Jason and Robert were getting ready for surgery at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital.

“It’s humbling and incredible at the same time,” Robert says. “We have the medical technology to take a living organ from someone and put it into another human being and it begins to work immediately.”

Robert and Jason both work in underwriting at different insurance companies.

“Robert and I share quite a bit in a common, and I am truly blessed to know him,” says Jason. “The admirable thing about Robert is that even if I’d never met him and he saw my story, I truly believe he still would’ve donated.”

More than two months since the donation, Robert and Jason are doing fine. What’s more, Robert says the process was educational for him as he’s discovered many misconceptions about kidney donation.

He says there have been no drastic changes to his lifestyle.

“The only significant change I’ve had to make is I can’t take ibuprofen,” he says. “I had to switch to acetaminophen for minor pain relief.”

Robert encourages others to learn more about the option of live kidney donation. “By choosing to be an organ donor on your license or donating blood, you can help others struggling with medical needs,” he says.

“I will occasionally have a phantom pain in my left side where they took the kidney. Beyond that, I feel no different today than I did the day before the surgery.”

And, Jason continues to do well.

“We were sitting around about a week later and Jason said he felt better now than he could ever remember feeling,” Robert says. “When you’re in the situation he was in, you don’t remember what normal or good felt like.

“It was such a good thing to be a part of.”

Dead ends

Both of his parents passed away, and miles and matters separated the rest of his family. With his condition worsening, Sam intensified the search for a possible match in 2013. He finally reached an estranged cousin in California. In questioning how other family members dealt with the genetic disorder, the cousin revealed the family secret Sam’s mother had taken to her grave: Sam was adopted. His known relatives would not be a match. He realized the already difficult task would now be close to impossible.

A successful corporate software sales director for Microsoft, Sam was now too sick to work. Online research revealed that someone falsified his birth records to make it impossible to find his birth family. Further, the hospital in which he was born had closed and its medical documents shredded…another dead end.

Every genetic test available found no close relatives in their databases. Sam’s friends all began to test to see if they could help, but the process was slow and tedious. Further, if a match was found, the donor had to be in perfect health. Slowly, each was eliminated for various reasons.

Sam’s “slow boat to hell,” as he called it in a Dallas TV interview, was taking a toll. Sam made frequent trips across country to Mayo Clinic for evaluation and treatment. He was now on dialysis; a procedure he knew could keep him alive, but was no way to live. Some people’s health declines on dialysis, and Sam was not doing well. He prepared his wife, Julie, and their two children for the worst. That included educating Julie about the household insurance in case he didn’t make it through his health situation.

Conversation connects important dots

Linda Horton is Sam’s State Farm Agent, she enjoys his intelligence, kindness and his jokes. Sam likes Linda’s caring personality and thoughtfulness, and he even referred business to Linda. The two stay in touch as insurance needs change. Over a lunch, they discussed his insurance coverage, his condition and his dire need for a kidney to match his Type O blood. That conversation with Linda changed – if not saved – his life.

That same week, in addition to caring for customers like Sam, Linda was also interviewing team members for her growing agency in north Dallas. One of those interviews was with Adrian Serrano.

Adrian talked about his professional accomplishments, his personal life, goals, ambitions and bucket list. The Army reservist, deployed in Iraq in 2004, shared a story about a near-death experience on the battlefield. Adrian said he had “made a deal with God” that if he lived, he would “live his life for God.” Adrian went on to tell Horton he had an O blood type and aspired to be an organ donor. Linda immediately made the connection to her friend and customer, Sam Miller. She told Serrano, “I have a client with an O blood type and he’s also in dire need of a kidney!”

Horton introduced the two. With his previous potential donors all disqualified for one reason or another, Sam was running out of hope. Though certainly grateful for the introduction, he was wary of getting his hopes up that a complete stranger, introduced by his insurance agent, would turn out to be his donor.

However, Adrian was a perfect match and willingly donated his kidney. On the February morning Sam was to have a surgery to re-route blood vessels in his arm for more efficient dialysis; he instead had a transplant. His “slow boat to hell” was starting to turn around.

A match made in heaven

Some might say it was an amazing coincidence. Adrian and Sam feel God had a plan from the beginning.

God orchestrated this from day one,” said Serrano in a Dallas television interview.

Miller said he found faith. ”All of a sudden, I was alive again. We don’t know where this leads, but what a beautiful testimony and sacrifice for, really, a stranger.”

Sam and Adrian are both doing well.

Adrian is back at work, though not at State Farm. Sam suffers from migraines, but nothing more serious. He continues his recovery at home in Dallas taking his wife, son and daughter on trips when their schedules allow.

As for resuming his search for family, Miller says for now he is enjoying his life, family and “taking a breather for a minute.”

Learn more about organ donation at donatelife.net or organdonor.gov

Click here to watch the interview with Adrian Serrano