When Hoover couple Shannon and Kyle Kline first began their living kidney donation journey, they couldn’t have predicted what a profound, grace-filled testimony God would give them both.
Shannon, a 44-year-old third-grade teacher, was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease six years ago. Her mother and younger brother both have the genetic condition, as did her maternal grandfather, so she wasn’t unfamiliar with its presentation or prognosis.
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Once she was diagnosed, Shannon began a medicine plan designed to slow down the progression of her PKD. She and Kyle hoped a transplant might not be necessary for years or even decades to come.
But by the summer of 2024, Shannon received word that her kidney function had declined enough to necessitate transplant evaluation. “It was a gut punch,” she said. “I’m looking at this as a mom of three kids. I’m in the middle of raising my children.”
Still, Shannon knew that God had both her and her family in the palm of His hand.
Living kidney donation and paired-kidney exchange
The Klines have a long-standing history with the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Kidney Transplant Program. Since Shannon’s mother and grandfather both underwent their transplants at UAB and because it is close to Hoover, it was a straightforward decision to begin her evaluation process there in August 2024.
Once Shannon was deemed healthy enough to participate in UAB’s Living Kidney Donation Program, Kyle immediately volunteered for donor evaluation. He recalls thinking at the time, “This is what God’s prepared me to do.”
While the Klines awaited the results of Kyle’s evaluations for donor eligibility and compatibility, other family members and friends from their longtime church home, Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover, volunteered themselves as possible donors.
Even if none of them could be matched due to health disqualifications, blood type or tissue incompatibility, Shannon could still find a compatible donor through the UAB Kidney Paired Donation Program. Paired-kidney exchange allows incompatible donor and recipient pairs to match with other incompatible pairs, whether once or several times over.
Kyle explained the process as an incredible way for more patients to receive the transplants they need, utilizing teams of expert surgeons to operate on multiple donors and recipients at once.
“Tell me that the Lord’s not involved in something in a bigger way when you can find six sets of people, and they figure out how to match all of those kidneys up with the right recipients on the same day, at the same time, to make sure that all of this plays out.”
Another perfect match
In the end, though, Kyle and Shannon wouldn’t have to wait on a paired exchange.
In October 2024, the couple learned that Kyle had been approved as a kidney donor. Two hours later, they received word that he and Shannon were a compatible match.
It was the extraordinary answer they’d been praying for.
The news was so remarkable because 16 years prior, Shannon’s own mother and father became a transplant pair. “What a God we serve,” she said, “that He has allowed this to happen two times in my family where a husband was a perfect match for the wife.”
Kyle reflected on the picture of covenant love painted by his and Shannon’s transplant story. “It was the example that we were able to have, to be able to show how much a husband and wife love each other and care about each other.”
“You guys have a lot of people that love you.”
Equally remarkable was how quickly all the pieces fell in place for them. Shannon found out about her declining kidney function the first week of June. Their transplant surgery was scheduled for Jan. 3, 2025, just six months later.
Throughout their transplant journey, Hunter Street Baptist surrounded the Kline family with love, support and prayer.
“I want to make sure that people read and know how instrumental prayer and our church family were in all of this,” Kyle explained. “From the people that prayed for us and the match, and then the support we got before the surgery when the ministerial staff came to our house.”
Shannon recalled how they blew past the hospital’s visitor limit due to family, friends and wave after wave of church members. She kept hearing the same observation from nurses and hospital staff: “You guys have a lot of people that love you.” For the Klines, these comments always called to mind the lyrics to “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love.”
A familiar reassurance
God also prepared the Kline family through Shannon’s experience with her own parents’ transplant journey. She and Kyle knew exactly what practical support they would need during and after their hospital stay. But they also had a better idea what the experience might be like for their kids.
“I remember feeling isolated,” Shannon recalled of her parents’ transplant day. “You know, for a lot of people, the first person they think to call when something’s going on is their mom and dad.” She said that when both of her parents were in surgery together, “It was very surreal. But it did allow me to have some very special conversations with the kids to say, ‘This is how I felt.’”
Because her parents had walked the same journey beforehand, Shannon felt uniquely equipped to reassure her kids of God’s grace as provider and protector. “If God can do that for Mimi,” she explained to her daughter, “He could do it for me too.’”
A sleepy kidney
God brought Kyle and Shannon safely through their transplant procedure, and He continued to provide when Shannon had to go back for a second surgery three days later on Jan. 6. Imaging still couldn’t confirm blood flow to her new kidney, so doctors needed to examine the problem.
Kyle had already been released from the hospital and was attending his mother’s funeral when he got the news. “He left as fast as he could out of the room,” Shannon said. “But he got the phone call that everything was fine. It was just what we call a sleepy kidney (delayed graft function). Yet again, I saw the Lord provide and the peace of everything and His people bathing us in prayer.”
During her time in the hospital, Shannon held on to Hebrews 11:1. “My favorite verse ever has always been, ‘Now faith is being sure of what [we] hope for and certain of what [we] do not see.’ And I think I clung to that verse. Throughout this whole experience, I truly felt God’s peace. I can’t say there weren’t moments that I struggled. But God had me in His hands.”
Once they returned home from the hospital, the Klines were overwhelmed by the love and blessings of their church family, from in-home visits to a monthslong meal train.
It seemed like the perfect ending to the Klines’ story. But Shannon’s hospital journey wasn’t over yet.
Joy greater than this moment
Doctors usually don’t remove a transplant patient’s native kidneys during initial surgery unless medically necessary. But a few months after her procedure, Shannon’s were starting to become problematic. She went in for a nephrectomy on July 1, 2025.
As Kyle explained, “It was supposed to be simple. And ‘simple’ turned into complications. And 26 days later, we left the hospital and yet again, our church family just rallied around us. Everybody took care of us. She got very sick very quickly. But in all of that, the only thing that wasn’t sick in her body was the transplanted kidney.”
Shannon was in terrible pain throughout her nearly monthlong hospital stay. But she held tightly to Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
“That’s truly the only way that we got through all of this,” she said. “God provided the doctors and the staff that knew what they were doing and just helped us and our kids. One of my doctors told me, ‘This is just a blur. It’s a blip in time, and you’ll look back on it and it will be nothing.’ And I’ve had this in my head, that July 1 is a whole year ago now!”
From hurt to healing
For the Klines, there is miraculous joy in moving from hurt to healing. Kyle said that “from basically Aug. 1 of last year till now, it’s the healthiest she’s been in really a decade.”
Prior to her transplant, Shannon lived with chronic back pain, nausea and fatigue from her PKD. “There were days that she’d come in and from school, and she’d lie down because she felt so bad,” Kyle said. “She would lie down for two or three hours and then get schoolwork ready and try to be a mom and everything else.”
Now, Shannon feels like she’s been given a brand new life.
As she explained to UAB News in their own feature on the Klines, “I didn’t realize how sick I had felt for so long. The fatigue was gone. The nausea was gone. I could finally feel what ‘normal’ felt like again.”
Shannon has returned to her classroom at Riverchase Elementary School with renewed health and energy. Over her summer vacation this year, she’s even spending eight weeks working with Camp Hunter Street — her church’s Christ-centered day camp program for children.
As Kyle observed, “That renewed health is opening up doors and opportunities to serve more and be able to participate in more things to grow our faith and the Kingdom.”
Shannon has had multiple opportunities to pray for and share with other kidney patients, from church members to one of her nurses during her hospital stay last July. “You develop kindred spirits with people,” she said. “And then you find those opportunities that you can help dispel fear or worry for other people that are about to walk their own journey.”
Sharing a gift of life
The Klines see their transplant experience as a testimony God has given them to share with others. As Shannon put it, “In a way, I feel like I have a special story to tell because I can talk about God’s faithfulness in all of this.”
Shannon and Kyle are also passionate advocates for organ donation, especially living kidney donation.
Kyle testified to his own experience as a living donor, including what he’s learned about UAB’s Kidney Paired Exchange Program.
“I live a normal life. I’m still able to do everything I need to do. And if the Lord places it on your heart to give that gift to someone, don’t be scared of it because for me, it’s one of the greatest blessings I’ve had as a husband to be able to do. But I would find it equally as gratifying and equally as humbling if I were able to give that gift to any human being.”
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