When Mark and Diane Shreve began raising funds to adopt two boys in Ethiopia, fees far exceeded their savings.   

For years, Southeast supported them as missionaries to Papua New Guinea, where they translated Bible stories in the people’s heart language, trained leaders for the local
church and lived life with a remote tribe.

Now settled in Louisville, adoption is yet another adventure in faith.

After applying to adopt in Ethiopia through Arise for Children, they were matched with 7-year-old Yemisarach and 5-year-old Abel, 5, who will join their three biological children:
Noah, 8, Hadassah, 5, and Tizrah, 18 months.

The Shreves turned to friends in Couples for Christ Weekend Group to help raise funds. Rather than simply seeking donations, they partnered with a nonprofit organization
called Both Hands, which reaches out to widows while providing funds for adoption. It follows the model set forth in James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure
and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”  

In the Both Hands program, adopting families enlist sponsors, who pledge money for the adoption. In return, the adoptive families pledge to help fix up the home of a widow in
need.

It was through Both Hands that the Shreves learned about Yenedesta, an Ethiopian-American widow who needed help after her husband died of cancer. Though she had
worked hard in food service at a downtown hotel to provide for her children, her home needed repairs and upgrades.  

On Saturday, July 9, dozens of friends who heard about the outreach showed up at Yendesta’s house with tools in hand. Each one had asked their friends to sponsor that
workday to assist the Shreves’ adoption fund.  Children served alongside their parents as they worked on Yenedesta’s yard, fixed railings and painted interior walls.  

The money raised on that workday helped the Shreve’s meet their fund-raising goal, and a few weeks ago, the Shreves traveled to Ethiopia to meet Yemisrach and Abel.

“It was a sweet, surreal moment in time for us to meet our children,” Mark said. “We saw our normally shy toddler embrace them with pats and giggles as the children bonded.”

As Coleman said, God has been faithful to provide the funds the Shreves needed.

In addition to their own personal funds, donations from Both Hands project and LifeSong for Orphans, a grant from Orphan Care Alliance and a grant from Show Hope, Steven
Curtis Chapman’s adoption foundation, they are seeing financial needs met.

“We are grateful for all who have worked this journey with us—and to God, who is providing for all our needs. We were adopted by the King. Now we are adopting for the King.”

-Witness during adoption process article by Ruth Schenk, The Southeast Outlook
http://southeastoutlook.org/article/witness-during-adoption-process/