Imagine What Could Happen If You Just Say YES | Ep. 85 with Nino DiGiulio and Renee Black
Welcome back to the No Grey Areas podcast, hosted by Pat McCalla, featured a compelling episode with guests, Nino DiGiulio and Renee Black, centered around an extraordinary act of selflessness and faith! Nino, who had been undergoing grueling dialysis for 2.5 years, was in need of a kidney. Enter Renee, who, driven by a divine calling, decided to donate her kidney to Nino, despite being strangers.
Nino found himself deepening his faith and developing a stronger moral compass, while Renee experienced a renewed sense of faith and confidence in God's ability to use ordinary people for extraordinary purposes. Imagine what would happen if you just said “YES” to His plan?
Their story serves as a testament to the power of faith and selflessness, demonstrating that miracles can happen through ordinary individuals who are willing to answer a higher calling. If you loved this episode, be sure to like, follow, and subscribe for more episodes!
If you want to get ahold of either Nino or Renee, this is their contact information:
NINO'S INFO:
480-861-2494
nino_digiulio@yahoo.com
RENEE'S INFO:
480-216-0469
hudson1320@yahoo.com
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No Grey Areas is a motivational podcast with captivating guests centered around how our choices humanize, empower, and define who we become. This podcast is inspired by the cautionary tale, No Grey Areas, written by Joseph Gagliano. Learn more about the truth behind his story involved with sports' biggest scandal at nogreyareas.com
#habits #success #change #motivation #motivational #inspiration #difference #choices #nga #purpose #liveonpurose #lifestyle #better #mentalhealth #decisions
Transcript
Host
Welcome back to the No Gray Areas podcast. I'm your host, Patrick McCullough. You tuned in for an incredible episode where we dive into the inspirational journey of Nino and Rene. This conversation is driven by faith and showcases Rene's selfless story on how she donated her kidney to a complete stranger. This discussion proves to you and me that miracles happen through ordinary people.
::Host
Let's get started.
::Pat McCalla
Nino and Rene, welcome to the No Go Areas podcast. It is a joy to have you here. So I'm going to just jump right in to the deep into this pool.
::Pat McCalla
Rene, why in the world would you give your kidney to a complete stranger?
::Renee Black
God told me to
::Pat McCalla
really
::Renee Black
really
::Pat McCalla
Can you just. And we're going to jump into this whole story in our audience right now.
::Pat McCalla
It's probably a little bit in shock. They're like, Wait, what?
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
So this is going to be great.
::Pat McCalla
You kidney transplant. You need a kidney, Rene. You, you and we're going to get into how this all happened, but you did not know each other in any way. And this just recently happened for January 3rd was when this.
::Renee Black
surgery
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah, yeah, six
::Renee Black
Yeah, I was walking my dogs and it just in our new neighborhood and I walked by his truck and he had a sticker on the back of it that said, I need a kidney, can you help me?
::Renee Black
And then it had an email address, and I think his phone number was there. And I just had this over whelming sadness truly, that I just felt so sad that he was in such need that he would go to those length. And I just felt, God just, you know, I just said, thank you, Jesus, please help this man.
::Renee Black
And I just kept walking and I felt the spirit of the Lord say, No, you're going to help this man. Wow. And I laughed it off. I mean, I truly in my head was like, ha ha, you're funny. Great sense of humor. I love you. And I just kept on walking and I got back to my house and let my dogs off the leash.
::Renee Black
And I had this again. The Holy Spirit came over me and said, You may not be able to give this man a kidney, but you can give him something, whether it's a word of encouragement, a hug, a cry, something, go ask him what he needs. And I just walked right over to his truck. And oddly enough, he was sitting in his truck and I just knocked on the window and he was on the phone with his nephrologist, which is his kidney specialist.
::Renee Black
And he just said one minute. And I just waited very patiently. And he got off the phone and I said, I noticed that you have a sticker on your truck. Do you still need a kidney? And he was like, Yeah, I said, I want to help you. And he turned his truck off and invited me into their office and we just went in for a few minutes and had a brief conversation and I said, I don't know if I can do this for you, but I'm going to try.
::Pat McCalla
Wow,
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
right.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
So what was that like for you? You're sitting in your truck and someone knocks on the window and you roll down the window. Walk us through
::Nino DiGiulio
I roll down the window. I told you we were
::Nino DiGiulio
just about done with our conversation. So I did say one second. The window was up and I got off the phone and at first I thought, okay, it's a homeowner's that has a complaint or something, but it's far from that.
::Nino DiGiulio
So I rolled down my window and she asked me if I still needed a kidney, and I said yes. And she just said, I want to help you. So I invited her inside. We spoke for a while. I put her in contact with my coordinator
::Nino DiGiulio
and it went off from there.
::Pat McCalla
wow. Now, you had been going through dialysis for two and a half years.
::Nino DiGiulio
Two and a half years, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 4 hours each session.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah. Yeah. And that's so. So walk us through what that is like. Let's say some of our audience doesn't know what dialysis is or what you have to go through for dialysis.
::Nino DiGiulio
So the kidney function is to
::Nino DiGiulio
clean your blood from what you intake food and stuff, and the kidneys purpose is to filter your blood.
::Nino DiGiulio
So with my kidney not working, I had to get the assistance of the machine, the dialysis machine. And it filters it drains your your blood and filters it and then puts it back in your body.
::Pat McCalla
it's taking the blood out of your body, running it through artificial kidney, in a sense,
::Nino DiGiulio
yes. The machine
::Nino DiGiulio
Correct.
::Nino DiGiulio
And
::Nino DiGiulio
Monday, Wednesday, right? Yes.
::Nino DiGiulio
It's
::Nino DiGiulio
time consuming and it's painful. After after each session, I'm I'm like out of it. My body is sore and achy and I usually just go to bed for the whole day
::Nino DiGiulio
because I can't function
::Pat McCalla
So, yeah, you're just tired and exhausted. And
::Pat McCalla
you were actually you had a job where you were traveling at times and so you were just telling me before we turn on these mikes that when you went to another city, you would actually have to find a place, a hospital that you could go to, and you'd go there like four in the morning and do this before.
::Nino DiGiulio
before my meetings would start. So while everyone was recovering from the night before
::Nino DiGiulio
I got up early to go to the dialysis center, would do my 4 hours and then return back in time to start the meetings.
::Pat McCalla
So, you know, a lot of our audience are just listen to the audio. But we do have
::Pat McCalla
percentage of them that watch the YouTube as well.
::Pat McCalla
So they're going to see this visually. So can you just show us for those that all the audio people know you're missing out,
::Pat McCalla
it. But right before we turn this on, you were showing me your arm there
::Pat McCalla
you said put your finger right there. So right by your bicep, your left bicep.
::Pat McCalla
And I put my finger on there and I can just I can feel your, you know, big your heartbeat just boom, boom, boom. So what was that? What is
::Nino DiGiulio
So this is called a fistula,
::Pat McCalla
Okay?
::Nino DiGiulio
It's a vein that they connect to my artery, to my heart, so that they have good blood flow. What you're feeling is the flow of the blood.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
And dialysis does a fistula, and they put in two needles. So every Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I got two needles put in me.
::Nino DiGiulio
The first needle takes the blood out of my body, it filters it. And then simultaneously, after it's filtered, it goes back in through the second needle. Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
After a while, you kind of don't even feel the needles going in anymore because there's so much scarring. Yeah,
::Nino DiGiulio
but yeah, for 4 hours I would just sit there on the chair, usually lay down and I used to do it early in the morning, so I would try to sleep a little.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah. Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
So you, you had been going through this for quite a while. You're on the donor list, which is
::Pat McCalla
quite a mess, right?
::Pat McCalla
I mean, it's just there's a lot of people on the donor list.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah. Arizona has thousands and thousands of people waiting for a kidney.
::Nino DiGiulio
In fact,
::Nino DiGiulio
when this all started, the doctor told me can Arizona averages 3 to 7 years before you get a kidney. So I figured, okay, well, I'm going to be doing this for a while. Living donor helps the process go a lot quicker because you have someone that's ready to go. Most people get to donate a kidney from either someone who's deceased.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah. And then that causes a bunch of problems, too, because, you know, the person passed away. But so getting a living donor is the optimal way to to get the transplant.
::Pat McCalla
And you had been on that list. You're waiting. So that day you're sitting in your truck. And I want to ask in a moment about how those signs were made and
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
So what's funny about the list is you can get on the list. And as quickly as that happens, you can be off the list depending on the tests that you're doing. And if they find other issues, they'll take you off the list
::Pat McCalla
had been going? Yeah. You had told me that before we turned our mikes on. You had been going on and off the list because
::Nino DiGiulio
Correct. You
::Nino DiGiulio
Yes.
::Nino DiGiulio
About two years. About two years.
::Nino DiGiulio
Like the last time they found a clogged arteries. So they had to put a stint in me. So they took me off the list. Now, the good thing about it is when you're off the list, you're off, right? So you're not a candidate. But soon as they put you back on the list, it's not like you lose your spot and then having a living donor just kind of move the all the way up
::Pat McCalla
And, you know, I'm bouncing around a little bit in this interview, but I'm just I'm almost a little shell shocked here, sitting here, because this is such a fascinating story.
::Pat McCalla
you know, again, all of us being people of faith, I can't help but pause you for a moment. Just say, isn't it incredible that when you were walking that day, Rene, that we know that God knew exactly what that guy in that truck needed and he knew that you were you would be a match. You didn't know that.
::Pat McCalla
He didn't know that doctors it, but he knew that and how he just he orchestrated that whole thing.
::Pat McCalla
and a lot of it came from you just being obedient to that voice.
::Renee Black
Yeah,
::Renee Black
Yeah, I
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
And
::Pat McCalla
so again, this podcast is built around the power and complexity of human choice
::Renee Black
Yeah,
::Renee Black
Yep.
::Pat McCalla
right? You could have ignored what you heard God telling you,
::Pat McCalla
but you chose not to.
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Renee Black
you know, I just. It just confirms for me how wonderful God is, how he does know every need we have at every moment that other people don't even recognize.
::Renee Black
Right. I think the power and the grace that God gives us as human beings, I don't even think we know we carry. And it just it's just an affirmation for me that God is so good and that he performs miracles every day, even if other people don't see them. And yes, God, you know, he stands by our choices.
::Renee Black
We don't always choose. Right. Right. But I've made so many mistakes in my life and I have not listened to the voice of God. And I have regretted it deeply, deeply for so long afterwards that I told myself, if if he reveals himself to me, I will listen. And I tell him that every morning when I wake up, I am yours.
::Renee Black
I'm just a vessel, however it is that you want to use me. But whoever you want in my path, I will follow you.
::Pat McCalla
Was that a pattern in your life at that time? Because I heard you say, Rene, that when you back up, you look back and you see where there was a lot of mistakes you made, where you didn't listen to him and you had regrets over
::Renee Black
life
::Renee Black
Were
::Renee Black
that? No, I had been on my path for a while. Then,
::Renee Black
you know, when you're a baby Christian and you're just coming into your faith and, you know, I encourage people that I know to ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart.
::Renee Black
And I feel like after I did that, you know, when you're growing in your faith and you're becoming who you are and who you're supposed to be in Christ, after I asked him for that thing that favor, like, Please give me the gift of the Holy Spirit, I, I could hear the voice of the Lord, and it was such a beautiful thing to be able to know that that was his voice and not mine.
::Renee Black
And so when I started to listen and I did all the things right, if you guys, you know, are followers of Christ, he will ask you to do things you do not want to do. And weird things or odd things that you're like. It
::Pat McCalla
that makes you uncomfortable,
::Renee Black
yeah. yeah. Go talk to that person or just go feed that person.
::Renee Black
in your thinking, my gosh, this is really weird. Like embarrassing. This person doesn't know me. They're standing on a corner. Like, who am I? Right? But when I really started listening to that still small voice, the miraculous things that came from it just to fulfillment, just the peace, the joy, the love, the kindness that I received from doing those things for other people filled my whole life.
::Renee Black
And I at that moment was like, That's why I said, If you use me however you see fit, use me and I will follow you. Because he showed me all of these things after I started listening that I said, I will not deny you. And so when he's told me to do that, of course in my mind, this is so bizarre that this could even work this that this could even really happen.
::Renee Black
But like you said, that listening and obeying, that's all I wanted to do. So I knew that if I just did that, that I would reap the benefits.
::Pat McCalla
you just summed up what it means to be a follower of Jesus in a pretty simple way. And it is that simple because Jesus just said, Follow
::Renee Black
me. Yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah, yeah. To do. Yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Renee Black
yet
::Renee Black
Yes.
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Renee Black
No.
::Renee Black
Like you said, I had been doing it long enough, really following, you know, and doing what I was asked.
::Renee Black
And like I said, you know, in the back of my mind when when the Holy Spirit said, you're probably not going to be a candidate to give this guy a kidney. I mean, really, what are the chances? Like really that's what was going through my mind. But the fact that the inkling that behind it was, okay, maybe not a kidney, maybe just a hug, maybe just a shoulder, maybe just, hey, listen, I'm really sorry that you're going through this.
::Renee Black
I'm here if you want to talk, here's my phone number. I know I'm a stranger. Just something that would let him know that he's not alone.
::Pat McCalla
that's that, again, is something that any of us can do on any day with any person.
::Renee Black
Yes.
::Pat McCalla
we feel that
::Pat McCalla
that nudge, when we feel that little voice
::Renee Black
::Renee Black
Yeah,
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Renee Black
yeah. yeah.
::Renee Black
Right.
::Nino DiGiulio
yeah,
::Nino DiGiulio
boys. Yeah. So my sister Laura lives in Houston
::Nino DiGiulio
and I remember the day that the doctor said, you're going to need a transplant. I went back to the lobby after I met with them and I just sat for a minute just to kind of gather all my thoughts.
::Nino DiGiulio
And my sister and I are really close. So I called her from the lobby and I told her the news and she said, You know what? Nino's got to find you someone that'll help you. And in order to get a kidney, you have to have a designated caregiver. And my sister said, I'll be your caregiver when this happens.
::Nino DiGiulio
I'll fly up. I'll stay with you as long as you need to. And so my sister was brainstorming, how do we help him get a kidney? And one of her ideas was to get a sticker on the back of my truck that said, I need a kidney. Can you help? Question Mark? And then my email address. We created a new email address, too, just for people to hit that.
::Nino DiGiulio
And at first I told it. Now that's kind of dorky, you know?
::Nino DiGiulio
She said, No, I'm sending it to you. So when you get it, put it on. She's my baby sister, but I've learned to listen to her. So
::Nino DiGiulio
my son and I put the sticker on when it arrived, and it kind of fit perfectly on the back of the bed.
::Nino DiGiulio
And so we put that on. And my sister also called from Houston, all of the news stations here in Phenix. And she said, listen, my my brother needs a kidney. Would you guys like to do a story on him? And all three networks called me and came out to do a story on me.
::Pat McCalla
she was getting the word
::Nino DiGiulio
She was getting the word out.
::Nino DiGiulio
My mom is also very religious, so she was praying and my sisters praying. And so all the news stations came out to my home. We did the interviews.
::Nino DiGiulio
It was pretty incredible. I got a lot of responses, a lot of emails, probably over 100 emails from people, even one from South Africa,
::Pat McCalla
Really?
::Nino DiGiulio
And so I
::Nino DiGiulio
encouraging emails, and people say, I'd like to help you, I'll donate my kidney.
::Nino DiGiulio
So I would respond to everything. I'll email by giving them my coordinator's name, thanking them and blessing them, and having them start the process of calling the coordinator.
::Nino DiGiulio
Well, a lot of good people out there in this world. When you hear such negative stories all over the world, there are good people. Yes, unfortunately, none of them panned through. I they probably saw the story, got emotional, shot me an email, but it was encouraging. You know, there's there's good people out there and they're willing to help.
::Nino DiGiulio
But nothing like the day that Renee tapped on my window.
::Pat McCalla
losophers and theologians for: ::Pat McCalla
that they're the fingerprints of God in our world. And, and, and human beings are creating the image of God. And yeah, we see a lot of evil in all you do is turn on the news and you see a lot of evil. But if you watch, if you look, you will also see beauty, truth and goodness, the fingerprints of God in our world.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yes.
::Pat McCalla
your story like what you saw when this story started going out, as you saw that you saw people responding and encouraging and reaching out. But that
::Pat McCalla
takes us back to to Renee, that you're saying that a lot of those didn't follow through necessarily. Maybe they were in emotional.
::Pat McCalla
So when you were walking down the road that day and you guys met, it's not like this month later you guys went in and had this kidney transplant.
::Pat McCalla
Right? It
::Nino DiGiulio
Right. Little
::Renee Black
Yeah,
::Renee Black
yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
Took about a year and eight months from the day she tapped on my glass to January 3rd.
::Nino DiGiulio
Why so long? Mostly on my end. Because I had issue after issue that I had to correct. Yeah. Which took me off the list.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yes. Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
and Rene, I would tell Rene, you know, we'd call or text each other. We text almost every day now. But I would tell her, Hey, listen, they'd taken me off the list because of this issue or that issue.
::Nino DiGiulio
And Rene said, you know, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I'm sticking with you. This is going to happen. If I can help you, I will help you. I'm not going away, which was a comfort to me. You know, I found someone who really cares
::Pat McCalla
you found someone. I got to say this again, though. You found some that you didn't even know
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah,
::Nino DiGiulio
Well, she found me.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah? Yes. Yeah, exactly.
::Pat McCalla
You know, again, it's just.
::Pat McCalla
I picture a picture of Jesus smiling in this whole story, right? Like when your sister is calling the news stations and she makes that little sticker for your truck. She's just had to be smiling knowing where that was going to go.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah,
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah, right. You
::Nino DiGiulio
Right.
::Nino DiGiulio
the.
::Renee Black
It's miraculous.
::Pat McCalla
yeah, yeah, it is.
::Renee Black
It's truly miraculous.
::Pat McCalla
What made you so a year and eight months, you said?
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
What made you stick with this during that time? Then
::Pat McCalla
What made you stick with this during that time? Then
::Renee Black
let's think. God never leaves us. Why would I leave him? I knew he was going to go through trials. I knew things were going to come up again.
::Renee Black
You know, when everything comes up, you think this is the sign. This is the one that's going to say, No, this isn't going to happen. You're not a match or he's not ready, you know, But yet again, I would I just would never do that. I'm a person of integrity. That's what God says. We don't just leave someone because they're going through a hard time.
::Renee Black
We don't just turn our back because we don't feel like we want it. This is where God put me at the perfect time, the perfect place. I was not going to detour myself or talk to myself out of doing this for him. We, you know, we kept in contact again, the beginning of it was really, you know, kind of slow and just, you know, basic stuff.
::Renee Black
Hey, can you go get your blood drawn? We needed to see if you guys are a match, right? I mean, there's a blood match. Could this even work? So, you know, that starts out and were the exact same blood type.
::Pat McCalla
quickly do you find that out? Was that like within weeks
::Renee Black
so
::Renee Black
I want to say, what
::Nino DiGiulio
probably about a month or two.
::Renee Black
Probably about a month or
::Nino DiGiulio
because they wouldn't even check Rene, unless some of my issues were moving forward. Yeah,
::Nino DiGiulio
and I remember the day Rene called me goes, My God, we're a blood match, which was like, Wow, You know, that's a huge hurdle. Yeah, because you can't just mix someone's blood with someone else's. That's not the same.
::Nino DiGiulio
And not just
::Renee Black
a match. Compatible were the exact same blood type a positive?
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah. So that was crazy to me. Just like, you know. my gosh, that's awesome.
::Renee Black
Then a little bit more time went by and he had some. That's when his heart stuff came back and he just, you know, said, Hey, this is going to be on hold just for a little bit. I need to have some stuff done.
::Renee Black
And of course, again, my heart, my heart was sad. Like he's already going through so much with diabetes, with dialysis, with kidney failure. And now this comes up and I'm thinking, what more is this man going to have to go through? And of course, I prayed with him. I told him, I'm praying for you every day. And he just, you know, just said, you know, I'm going to be put on hold.
::Renee Black
And I said, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be right here waiting. You just let me know nothing on my end has changed. And so that that happened, though, we, you know, messaged back and forth through that, of course. And then after that was done, they they called again and said, hey, can you go have some more blood drawn?
::Renee Black
And so they took about 20 vials of blood the second time to basically test you for everything. You know, is there anything going on in your system that we should be concerned about? And that came back and nothing came up?
::Pat McCalla
Wow.
::Nino DiGiulio
You know, Rene told me a while back,
::Nino DiGiulio
after a year, year and a half, year and eight months of doing this, Rene said something to me that sticks with me today.
::Nino DiGiulio
It's she goes, God didn't bring us together all this time for it, for anything to go wrong.
::Nino DiGiulio
And how true, you know. Yeah. So,
::Renee Black
like, you know, he says, if God brings you to it, he'll see through it. And I just kept telling him that he did not bring us this far to watch us fail, and he will not fail us.
::Renee Black
You know, the moments where he was a little nervous or he kept asking, Are you okay? Are you nervous? And every time I said no, because God brings this peace over you, that I will not fail you. You have listened to my voice. You have obeyed exactly what I have asked you to do. Why would I let you down now?
::Renee Black
right. And
::Pat McCalla
know, Renee,
::Pat McCalla
I can see why. You know, you probably have some doubts, you know, And you were probably at times going, is she going to see a true because you were just telling us that you got a lot of people that reached out early
::Nino DiGiulio
just you
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Renee Black
me. Yeah,
::Pat McCalla
Did you have any doubters on your side? Rene? Did you have people that were going, What are you doing?
::Renee Black
know this guy? Do you know how how wonderful it is that
::Renee Black
the people in my life know me as well as they do to know that this is who I am, This is my heart.
::Renee Black
And I did not have I truly my my husband and my son are so wonderful to me. But even my family, my mom, people who who could have been or or maybe should have been a little nervous of like, this is my baby girl. Like, this is my my daughter. Like, what if something does happen to her? Like, but I did not have any naysayers.
::Renee Black
Not one person that came to me and was like, you know, I don't know that you should do this. It's not a good idea. What if you die? What if What if, what if? And I said, That's not up to you. That is up to God, and I'm going to do what he asked me to do. So just let it go and again, no, no one, everyone was like, my gosh, you are.
::Renee Black
That's amazing. I think you know, too, though, in the back of their minds, they thought the same thing that we thought, which was the chances of this actually happening are like slim to none. So I think they were kind of in the background going, okay, honey,
::Renee Black
yeah, yeah,
::Renee Black
yes, yeah,
::Renee Black
But they didn't they never said, we never thought this was going to happen.
::Renee Black
Like, we can't believe you're here right now. None of them. Everyone just literally just saw me right through all my tests. When I would come back, they would text me, you know, how did it go? How did you do? How did you. And we would be in communication, you know, and I the whole time as well. So it really has been, again, the grace and the beauty that God bestows on us and our people that love us.
::Renee Black
It's it's just it's so beautiful to me.
::Pat McCalla
Community is so important,
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
saying is
::Pat McCalla
you have a community around you, your husband, your son,
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Renee Black
God. Yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
that's that's a beautiful thing.
::Pat McCalla
When you guys found out that it was a green light, how long before, sir? So January 3rd, you guys went and you did this transplant
::Renee Black
It was a couple months.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah. Couple months. That to get it scheduled. Yeah.
::Renee Black
mean, truly, I think we would have done it earlier when we had talked about everything going through him being on the other side of, of the health stuff, all of my, again, my testing all came back. Everything was good. We really were like looking at our calendars going, okay, let's do it. We thought honestly, November 29th
::Renee Black
was like a good time for us.
::Renee Black
It was after Thanksgiving, it was before Christmas. It was, you know, time to heal in between. And then when we talked to the coordinator her, she was like, my first available is January 3rd. And we were both like, okay, well, I guess we're going to do it January 3rd. So that's how it worked.
::Pat McCalla
what was that like for you, Nina, when you found out like this? This is kind of this is real.
::Pat McCalla
Like this is going to happen, though.
::Nino DiGiulio
I was like,
::Nino DiGiulio
wow, I can't believe this is happening. Thank God for having Rene in my life and seeing us through all this. But yeah, I was excited.
::Nino DiGiulio
My family was excited. My sister and my mom were super excited. So yeah, it's a great feeling to know that there's someone out there that's going to do this for you.
::Pat McCalla
So January 3rd, that's the day that you guys get.
::Pat McCalla
We'll. Did you see each other that day?
::Nino DiGiulio
yeah,
::Renee Black
We had dinner the night before with our families, my sign and my husband and his mom, his sister and his children. And so we all got to meet each other. That was one of our things.
::Renee Black
We really wanted our families to be involved in everything and we wanted them to feel comfortable and close. Like we feel comfortable and close. You know, we've built over the last two years this beautiful friendship. And we wanted them to feel the same about each other, about being comfortable. And so we had this really nice dinner
::Renee Black
the night before.
::Renee Black
Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
What's funny is my doctor said no eating after midnight
::Nino DiGiulio
the night before. Her doctor said only liquid. You can eat for three days. For three days
::Renee Black
before
::Renee Black
and three days after. yeah, I got to have ice cream. I had ice cream and pineapple juice for dinner. And you know what was so sweet, though?
::Renee Black
His sister
::Renee Black
and we communicated a little bit on Facebook and stuff like that. And when I met her, I felt like I've known her my whole life, but she in honor of me, she ate the same thing I did for dinner because she just felt so, you know, she was like, Listen, if this is what you're having, this is what I'm going to have in solidarity.
::Renee Black
You like totally supporting me. It was so sweet.
::Pat McCalla
So how has this changed you? This whole story? I'll start with you, Nino.
::Pat McCalla
How has this changed you? Because you, you know, you're you're obviously going through disappointments. You're not even sure if you're going to live through this in the early days of it. You're going through the dialysis three times a week, 4 hours a day, and then this person knocks on your window and then this story's unfolding. But it takes time.
::Pat McCalla
You don't know if it's going to work. And then and here you are on the other side of it, about six weeks out for sure.
::Pat McCalla
How has this changed you?
::Nino DiGiulio
So, I mean, I the biggest change is
::Nino DiGiulio
I'm I'm deeper into my faith. I've never really been religious. I mean, I know good from bad and what's good to do and what's bad to do.
::Nino DiGiulio
But since that and maybe even a little bit before the surgery, just hanging out with Rene and her husband, I've really got the sense that I got to get closer to God than I have been. And so
::Nino DiGiulio
it's a good feeling to be close to God. Yeah, it really is. I talk to him every day.
::Nino DiGiulio
I talk to my father to he's passed away a couple of years ago.
::Nino DiGiulio
And so it's just a it's a warmth that I have inside, knowing that my faith is super, super strong. Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
What about you, Rene? How has this changed you? Or has it?
::Renee Black
yeah. I mean, and I'm sure more things will come up, you know, down the line of how much this has changed me.
::Renee Black
Again, it's just it's renewed my faith. It has just. It's renewed my love for God and just knowing and feeling like if he can use me to do this, he can use anyone right? It's just that like that again, that like affirmation of no matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, God is going to use you in a mighty way.
::Renee Black
You just have to let him know that you're available. And, you know, I wanted to say, you know, this mainly that, you know, this podcast is about choices and choices that we make. And before I want you to know how how really this is this is so miraculous that this happened just period, how this happened. But the beginning of this whole thing is even more amazing to because I don't even know how we got here.
::Renee Black
I, my husband and I years ago, we both had six figure jobs and God told us to quit our jobs and sell everything we owned and travel to spread the good news of the Lord. And we did boats, cars, houses. We gave it all away. And when we started to travel, it was more even more of a blessing knowing that we were doing this for him.
::Renee Black
And we met beautiful people and we saw beautiful things. And, you know, we were coming home just to celebrate the holidays with our families and we were going to hit the road again. There's so many beautiful things here and so many wonders that God has created that we really, really wanted to see. And when we got back to town, the place we were supposed to stay didn't work out.
::Renee Black
And somehow we ended up in a mobile home park in Casa Grande, Arizona, and then decided to stay because my husband was offered his dream job. We sold the motorcoach and rented a house in Nino's neighborhood
::Pat McCalla
And again, you just see how God orchestrated this whole thing, right?
::Renee Black
I mean, how beautiful to think way back then
::Renee Black
when we didn't even know what was happening, we didn't even know what was coming.
::Renee Black
We weren't even prepared. And God had this all planned out.
::Pat McCalla
Wow. Any regrets?
::Renee Black
no,
::Nino DiGiulio
none at all.
::Nino DiGiulio
Especially on my side.
::Renee Black
no, no,
::Renee Black
no, No regrets for, you know.
::Renee Black
I would do it all over again. Yeah. I wish I could give more. I wish I could do more. I wish there's part of me that I could give to someone else.
::Renee Black
I get It almost makes me sad that, you know, I can't give something else to someone else.
::Pat McCalla
if I. If I summed up what we've talked about today, I think, again, it goes back to the power of making the choice of simply saying yes to God.
::Pat McCalla
Like,
::Pat McCalla
reason that you two are sitting here with me in the story today is, is that's what happened. And it's a great reminder for for me, for our audience that given enough time, we will not regret those times when we say yes to God right. And that's the and God has given us the power and complexity of human choice.
::Pat McCalla
He's given us the choice of not saying yes.
::Renee Black
Yep,
::Nino DiGiulio
that? Absolutely.
::Renee Black
absolutely.
::Nino DiGiulio
I mean, so many things. Like Renee said, you know, she was traveling long before any of this.
::Nino DiGiulio
I mean, it would have been easy for me to be off that day and not and she'd not see my truck know I could have not been on the phone in the truck. So God had a plan and he
::Nino DiGiulio
let us follow it.
::Pat McCalla
Yeah,
::Renee Black
The details, I think you know
::Renee Black
Every little detail, the moments that the time frame that I if you don't believe, I hope you do now. Yeah, for
::Pat McCalla
for sure. And that's what's so
::Pat McCalla
fascinating about the story. And that's what you were doing, Rene, is you're backing us up like even your story to be in that that community that day, you have to back up years to you and your husband making that decision that we're going to step away from these jobs
::Renee Black
Yeah,
::Renee Black
years? Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah, yeah.
::Pat McCalla
Well, how can someone get a hold of you? For one thing, you both said that you would love to share your story more and take this opportunity to share it more. So if our listeners wanted to get a hold of you, how would they do that?
::Nino DiGiulio
So God in my heart, in my life, God's told me to share the story with that any way I can. And Rene has agreed to do that with me. So we'd like to do some speaking engagements just to share the story, and it might open up someone's eyes and heart to also step forward. Best way to reach me.
::Nino DiGiulio
They can either call me or send me an email
::Nino DiGiulio
So my cell phone is: ::Nino DiGiulio
you can use my personal email. Nino underscored to Julio at Yahoo so and I and o underscore d i g i you LIGO at Yahoo! It's a mouthful.
::Nino DiGiulio
don't swerve
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah.
::Pat McCalla
we drop this podcast, our information will be there for them. How would they get ahold of you, Renee,
::Renee Black
or email. My phone number is: ::Renee Black
It's on: ::Pat McCalla
I would really encourage our audience if they know of opportunities.
::Pat McCalla
I've zero doubt that they have been motivated and encouraged,
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah,
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah. Don't hesitate. Reach out. Reach out. Yes. I'd love to talk to you if you have
::Nino DiGiulio
other issues going on that I could help with, I would love to just be there for someone.
::Renee Black
Yeah,
::Renee Black
yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah. Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah,
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah I had a
::Nino DiGiulio
I had a lady reach out to me not too long ago
::Nino DiGiulio
she sent me an email. She said, I saw your story on the news. My husband needs a kidney and he's really depressed. Would you mind giving him a call? And I jumped on the phone immediately and I said something up too to speak to him, and she called me back.
::Nino DiGiulio
After a couple of days, I said, Thank you so much for reaching out to my husband. So things like that. Even if someone is feeling like that, just reach out.
::Renee Black
And if you have questions too, just about how do you go about this? How do you what testing is involved, what you know, there is a lot that goes into it as far as being healthy.
::Renee Black
You know, like you really are limited, you know, and I joke around about it a lot because, I mean, you can't smoke, you can't drink, you can't use marijuana, you can't have a certain diet. I mean, they ask a lot of things of you to not. And he's like,
::Nino DiGiulio
well, none of my friends require one one mine are from my from just gave me the list of things that don't qualify.
::Nino DiGiulio
I said man you've eliminated a lot of the people I know.
::Renee Black
So you
::Renee Black
on?
::Nino DiGiulio
door. Yeah. Yeah.
::Renee Black
Yeah, but
::Nino DiGiulio
those. Yeah,
::Nino DiGiulio
Well, thank you for having us. Appreciate it.
::Pat McCalla
Well, one of the things we do, which is kind of a fun way to end each of our podcasts, we do two truths. In a way. It's ironic because this is called No Gray Areas. I'm going to ask you to lie,
::Pat McCalla
I just want you to give me and we'll start with you.
::Pat McCalla
Nino. You can give me three statements. Two of them will be truths. One will be a lie. I and our audience have to try to guess which one is a lie. And I want you to know I've been on a pretty good run lately. I've
::Nino DiGiulio
Okay.
::Pat McCalla
All right.
::Nino DiGiulio
So
::Nino DiGiulio
I sat in the dug out of a Chicago Cubs game.
::Nino DiGiulio
Okay? Once I sat next to Muhammad Ali on an airplane flying to Hawaii. And I've been married three times.
::Pat McCalla
All those. Wow.
::Pat McCalla
You know, I'm going to go. I'm going to go with the Chicago Cubs is true.
::Pat McCalla
That's true. All right.
::Pat McCalla
Because I just you just you you look
::Renee Black
like.
::Nino DiGiulio
got
::Pat McCalla
Muhammad Ali sitting next to Muhammad Ali. That's the life
::Nino DiGiulio
know.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah, it was. It was crazy. My my father used to work for the Italian airline, Alitalia, and so we got to travel quite a bit for free. And when we would check in, they usually would upgrade us to first class if it was available. Now, today's you can't get any kind of upgrade, but back then there were room, there were seats available.
::Nino DiGiulio
So We checked in, they put us in first class. And right next to me was Muhammad Ali. He had two bodyguards in front, two bodyguards in the and he had one row. And so when I sat down, he was like, he is really, really nice. Yeah. So we got to talking a little bit. And I remember getting off of the plane and going down the jetway.
::Nino DiGiulio
All the news cameras were like walking backwards to and he, he had me around his arm getting off the plane. So it was really a cool experience.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah. That famous. Yes, it was
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah.
::Nino DiGiulio
Yeah. Yeah, we spoke the whole way.
::Nino DiGiulio
He was a little nervous. You know, those plastic emergency cards? He
::Nino DiGiulio
was going like this the whole flight until it broke in half. Yeah, but he was the champion, and it was incredible.
::Pat McCalla
Wow. That's good. All right, you got me.
::Renee Black
::Renee Black
all right. I know.
::Renee Black
okay.
::Renee Black
I have 30 tattoos. Okay. I was in the adult entertainment industry, okay? And I was a single mom for 20 years.
::Pat McCalla
I'm going to say the tattoos is true because I saw when your sleeve pulled up, you got a lot of tattoos on your arm.
::Renee Black
I do.
::Renee Black
Nope. No.
::Renee Black
Okay.
::Renee Black
15? 15. I have 15 tattoos. Yes
::Pat McCalla
Well, thanks again, both of you. I really, really appreciate you being here. And I loved hearing your stories, and I really to encourage our audience reach out to
::Nino DiGiulio
them. Please do get
::Nino DiGiulio
Thank you.
::Host
Thank you for tuning in to this compelling episode on the No Gray Areas podcast. If you enjoyed hearing Nino and Rene's inspiring story, please consider leaving us a five star review. Don't forget to like, follow and subscribe to our No Grey Areas podcast YouTube channel for more.
