“They saved each other,” Amanda McCowen said of what their daughter wrote in a diary. “They’re both heroes. They saved each other.”
GRANBURY, Texas — More than 20,000 people in the United States receive successful kidney transplants each year. But few, if any, of those success stories are like the one you can find in Granbury.
That’s because the donor and the recipient would, under most circumstances, probably not even be willing to be in the same room with each other.
Amanda and Angela beg to differ.
“God works in mysterious ways,” Angela Maples told us from her Christmas-decorated living room in Granbury.
Mysterious ways that began when she got sick. An autoimmune disease attacked her kidneys, leading to complete kidney failure. She reverted to peritoneal dialysis at home, more than a dozen hours a day, to stay alive.
“It was an out-of-body experience,” she says of the first time she attempted traditional dialysis before transitioning to at-home treatment. “But I just kept thinking, OK God, why am I going through this?”
Fast forward several months of “going through this,” and a kidney transplant would save her life.
“I am the recipient of a kidney, and her name is Miracle,” she said with a laugh while placing her hand on her side.
Her husband Joshua Maples is still celebrating that miracle, too.
“I just broke down into tears in our bedroom,” he said when he learned the transplant was scheduled. “I was grateful.”
“It’s an early Christmas gift,” Angela laughed.
It’s where that gift came from that made them wonder about those heavenly, mysterious ways.
Josh had been married before. Her name was Amanda. They had two children together. But the marriage didn’t last. They split several years ago.
Amanda and Angela would eventually meet, since they would essentially be sharing custody of those two children.
“And it was very much – I’m not going to share my children with you. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care how good you are. She could have walked on water at that point,” Amanda McCowen said.
But Amanda is the one who kinda-sorta walks on water now.
Because for the sake of the children they share, the now ex-wife decided to see if she might be a kidney donor match for Angela, the current wife.
“God has a sense of humor,” Amanda said. “God has an amazing sense of humor!”
Because she was a perfect match. The kidney transplant happened in October at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth – an ex-wife willingly giving a kidney to keep her ex-husband’s new wife alive.
“This is the woman who has walked beside me during motherhood and has loved these kids from the jump. And they need her,” Amanda McCowen said. “So it was an easy yes for me.”
“There’s nothing else I can ask for,” Joshua Maples said. “I got the best gift of all. I got a second chance at living a life with my wife. It all has to do with forgiveness and love. And it takes a village to raise kids,” he said of the two women who are now close friends and who are both called “Mom” by the children.
“Our daughter was writing a story, talking about my two mommies are heroes,” Angela said.
“They saved each other,” Amanda said of what their daughter wrote. “They’re both heroes; they saved each other.”
Joshua and Angela live in Granbury. Amanda lives in Terrell. But they’re raising their kids, and for that matter, now a couple of kidneys – together.
“And what the running joke is before, she was the biological mother, but now, since I have her kidney, they are partially biologically mine now too because now share DNA,” Angela Maples said with a laugh.
“It’s quite literally a miracle. It is,” Amanda added.
“I don’t want to squander this miracle,” Joshua Maples said. “I want it to reach as many people as possible who are going through the same thing,” he said of the need for more living donors.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 90,000 people in the U.S. are on a wait list for kidney transplants each year.
For Amanda and Angela, they celebrated their miracle this past week with a Christmas party game night at the Maples’ home in Granbury, complete with a s’mores-making kit.
“Do you want the purple one?” Amanda asked Angela when they were handing out skewers to roast marshmallows.
“No, you gave me a kidney, you get to have the purple one,” Angela answered.
“I appreciate that,” Amanda laughed.
