The Brentons are leaving for Hong Kong!!

Our most recent picture of Hannah

After a long, long wait, we are finally preparing to go to Hong Kong to pick up our adopted daughter, Hannah Lily.  This has been a long journey for us, and we are so thankful for you, our church family, who have walked with us through this process.  Many of you have contributed much of your time, resources, energy, and prayers to seeing this adoption finally become a reality.  Let me fill you in on what’s going to be happening in June, both in the Brenton family and in the Centerpoint family.

Brenton Family:

We will be flying out of Memphis thisSunday, June 6.  We’ll fly from here to Seattle, from Seattle to Tokyo, and from Tokyo to Hong Kong.  We should be arriving late Monday evening, local time.

We’ll be meeting Hannah on Tuesday, and we’ll be spending progressively more time with her each day until she finally moves in with us where we’re staying.  The adoption agency has a flat we’re able to use, and they’ll be helping us navigate through all the steps of the adoption process while we’re there.

We’ll fly out of Hong Kong the following Sunday, June 13.  With the date/time changes, I have no idea when that will put us back in Memphis.  I do need to ask that we not have a big group of people waiting for us at the airport or showing up at the house.  Because of her background, Hannah is likely to have some attachment issues, and we need to spend our first week back helping her connect to just us.  We’ll try to introduce new people into her circle just a few at a time, to help her adjust.  Because of this, we may not show up at church or church events for the first week or two.  We don’t want to socially overwhelm her as she begins her life with us. Thanks in advance for your understanding and patience regarding this.  We know how much you love her, and we won’t keep her from our church family even one second longer than necessary.

Centerpoint family:

I will be out of the country from Sunday, June 6 until early in the week that begins Monday, June 14.  I will be taking vacation days for the remainder of that week to spend time with our new family member.  The week of Monday, June 21 I will be working a partial schedule and will be available to to take calls and appointments.  I’ll work all that week, but I had a previously-scheduled event I’ll be preaching at up in my home town of  Evansville, Indiana that weekend.  This will also be our first opportunity to introduce Hannah to my family in Indiana.   After that weekend, I’ll be back to working and preaching as normal.

So, to summarize.  I’ll be away a week and vacationing at home a week.  I’ll be back to work after that, but I’ll miss an additional Sunday.  In fact, I will miss all four Sundays in June.  Because of this, the elders have extended the invitation to Jared Olinger to take the Centerpoint pulpit for the month of June.  Jared preaches for us frequently, and he has my full confidence.

Our Worship Pastor, Mike Barker, will be handling the day-to-day operations of the church for the two weeks I’m away.  If you need pastoral assistance while I’m out, please contact Mike or any of the elders of the church:  Jay Blondis, Mark Driver, or Floyd Morrisson.  Again, I’ll be back and working on Monday, June 21, and I’ll be back in the pulpit on Sunday, July 4.

I love you very much, church family, and I can’t wait to introduce our new daughter to you!

About the author

louisb - Louis Brenton is the Lead Teaching Elder at Centerpoint Church.