Help For The Overholt Family, Health and Needs

What if one of your two sons being adopted from another country was suddently diagnosed with Stage 3 T-Cell ALL (Leukemia), then caught Covid-19, and now is recovering from a bone marrow transplant? Your vehicles are old and unreliable. You have exhausted all of your time off from work for the adoption and hospital stays and you cannot lose your insurance, plus you have bills to pay.

We don't like to ask for help, but we are weary and getting desperate.

Denys (pronounced “Dennis,” age 13) and Nazar (pronounced “Nuh-Zar,” age 9) were very excited. They were being adopted from their orphanage — after being removed from unsafe conditions, which most of us could not imagine — after six long years of waiting. They were both thrilled about the prospects of living life with a brand new mom and dad in America. They had older brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, great aunts and great uncles, and even grandparents waiting for them. Everyone was very excited here in America. 

Then during the slow adoption process, something occurred that might have shattered all of their dreams. The oldest boy, Denys, was diagnosed with Stage 3 “T-cell ALL” (or Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) last August (2020). Our international contact was highly concerned by the news of Denys’ leukemia diagnosis. He dreaded giving us the news. He wondered if we would refuse to go through with the adoptions despite Denys’ cancer diagnosis. We had already raised four children of our own and hadn’t signed up for two adoptions and a health crisis. However, we did not hesitate. Our loving response was, “We love him with [cancer], we love him without [cancer]. We want him forever.” Nor did our response change when Denys began his bout with Covid-19 in December, just four months later.

Upon his diagnosis, Denys was quickly admitted to a hospital nearly two hours away from the orphanage, leaving his little brother very lonely. There was no way for Nazar to see or visit Denys, and his big brother had always been his protector. Nazar often cried himself to sleep without his brother during this time.

After a few months of treatment, the hospital claimed that Denys was in remission. Finally, after a two-month wait in a foreign country, we were able to sign the adoption papers and bring Denys and Nazar to their new home in Michigan.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. After extensive testing here in the U.S., doctors determined that Denys was not in remission and was, in fact, in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant.

Today, we come to you with prayers and needs. Denys is still recovering from a bone marrow transplant, which is wonderful news. As you can imagine,  besides the high mileage cars we have a lot of unplanned expenses. Just recently, one of our cars broke down twice, once one block from an appointment location. Fortunately, we were able to make Denys’ appointment. Not making that appointment would have drastically affected Denys’ treatment. The wrecker came to tow the car hours later.

There will also likely be future financial needs for tutors and counselors due to the boys’ experiences during their young lives. 

 Can you please help give us some peace of mind? Every little gift will help. Please do what you can, and if you cannot afford to give money at this time, we would greatly appreciate your prayers. 

The boys have already begun to touch people’s hearts.

One day Nazar happened to see his new Great Aunt Dorothy walking down the road for some exercise. She is a woman in her 80’s now and lives alone after raising four daughters of her own. Nazar saw her walking alone down the rarely traveled dirt road and ran out of the house to grab her hand. Then, as an after-thought, he yelled back to ask his new dad if he could walk with Aunt Dorothy. And when the two returned, Aunt Dorothy was smiling and filled with delight. Nazar had charmed and cheered her considerably that day, only having met her a couple of times prior.

Denys is also having his impact at the Helen DeVos’ Children’s Hospital. Everybody knows Denys. His nurses and doctors say that they love his “nervous little giggle” whenever he isn’t sure what they will do next or do things for him. He is always happy and laughing; apparently, his experience with the previous hospital was not this much “fun,” and best of all, he gets to play with his favorite toys, Legos. Most of the time, he is joyful (except for shots and blood draws). Other nurses and hospital workers stop by from around the hospital because they have heard that Denys is from another country, and they want to meet this happy young cancer patient. Some nurses and workers joke that Denys is going to become an engineer someday. He quickly and efficiently builds things with the Legos that his “Child Life” workers don’t even have a chance to help him.

For more information about the organization which introduced us to Denys and Nazar, please contact the 501(c)3 ministry called “Force for Christ Orphan Outreach” based in Teague, TX. Please see their website: www.forceforchristorphanoutreach.org. The organization places orphaned children within safe and loving homes for short visits to America. These visits allow the children to experience what it is like to live in a loving family and gives the families a chance to know the children better (and ideally, to make a “love connection”). Thank you for considering help — financial or otherwise — for Brian, Angela, Denys, and Nazar! May God bless you.