Pillowcase Dresses (Part 2!)

   Well, only four days, two hours, fifty-two minutes and forty-five seconds until my plane leaves for Asia! Not like I'm keeping track or anything. ;) I have a countdown application on my phone that I keep checking constantly. I am so excited! I can't wait to finally meet those orphan girls and give them all a great big hug.

I took this picture one week from my departure date. :)

    

      Last Saturday me and some of the ladies from my church got together and finished the pillowcase dresses that we were making for the girls in the orphanage! In two afternoons, we finished thirty dresses! Here are a few pictures of the dresses. 

The final thirty dresses!

They are all so different and unique! 

They're packed and ready to go!
I won't be bringing them in the tubs, though. :)

     All of us ladies had so much fun making these dresses together. I can't wait to give them to the girls and share the pictures with you guys! I want to be updating my blog while I'm there, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to upload pictures from my camera since I'm not bringing my own computer. If I can't upload pictures while I'm there, I'll make sure to upload them once I get back!

     I'm almost done packing for the trip and I'm anticipating it more and more each day. On Sunday, my church will be commissioning me and we will also be finishing up the book of Philippians. It should be a fun day with friends and family! Of course, it will be my last Sunday with my church family before leaving for Asia, so it will be sad to say goodbye! I keep reminding my little brothers that it will only be for a month, but to them a month seems like an eternity. :) I know that it will be a life-changing experience and I'm really looking forward to making memories that will last a lifetime!   

My Prayer Requests:

Pray that I can find my way through the airports, that I'll be able to sleep on the airplane and that I'll be able to adjust to Cambodian time quickly! Please also pray that I'll adjust well to the heat. I know that I don't do well with hot weather, so I've been praying that I won't get heatstroke and that the heat and humidity won't shock my system. 

Do you have any prayer requests? If so, comment the request below and I'll be sure to keep you in my prayers!

James 1:27 (KJV)

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

In His Service,

-Hannah Boyd

Philippians 1:21

Debt-Free

     Going into college, my main priority is to graduate debt-free. For me, that means that if I don't have the money to pay for classes then I won't sign up for them. I won't buy anything that I can't afford and I won't register for classes that I don't have the money for. That seems like a pretty basic concept to me, but as I've been sharing my debt-free goal with more and more people I have been surprised to have received a couple negative responses! The negativity isn't because people oppose my goal, but it is because they think that it's impossible (especially if I won't take loans.) Despite the discouraging comments, remaining debt-free continues to be a conviction of mine.

"For with God nothing shall be impossible."

Luke 1:37

     In the height of my discouragement, I completely forgot that it wasn't just my goal to graduate debt-free... it was God's goal for me as well. I knew that He wanted me to graduate without debt, but at that point, I had no idea how he would do it. Remaining debt-free seemed impossible, but I had faith that if His will for me was to have no debt, he would provide the means for me to do so.
     The next day I had the opportunity to meet with a financial aid counselor from the college to discuss the costs for the upcoming year. I was prepared for discouraging news, but our meeting was exactly the opposite of that! The counselor told me that the aid I was going to receive would cover my tuition (all of my classes!) And since I would still be living at home, I'd be getting free room and board as well! I immediately smiled as I realized what had just happened. The Lord had provided, once again! Isn't God great?! I am thrilled to be entering into my first year of college knowing that the Lord has provided and I'll be completing it debt-free!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 

in all your ways submit to Him, and he will make your paths straight." 

Proverbs 3:5-6

I'm a high-school graduate! What?!

     Well, I am officially a high-school graduate and I am so proud to say that I was home-schooled through all twelve of those years! I doubled up my schoolwork during my last year of high-school and ended up graduating in three years instead of four! So, technically it's been eleven years, not twelve. :) But, anyway, now I'm a year ahead and just super excited to see what God has in store for this next season of my life! 

My favorite cap and gown picture!

Me with my brothers!
Left to right: James, Joshua, Me, Grant and Ethan.

Me with my family and my grandparents.
Top row: Joshua, G'ma Sharon, G'pa Bill and Grant.
Bottom row: James, Mom, Me, Dad and Ethan.

My daddy bought my mom and I roses!
I am so privileged to say that I was educated and discipled by such an admirable woman. There were afternoons when we wanted to give up (I'm thinking of tears over math pages,) but there were so many more beautiful moments that made everything worthwhile. I couldn't feel more proud of my mom and dad for sacrificing such a big portion of their lives to home-school my brothers and I. My mom's a Proverbs 31 woman! I wanna' be like her when I grow up!

 

     The graduation ceremony was beautiful and the whole day ended up being really special and memorable. We went over to my friend's house after the ceremony and had a fun evening with close family friends!

     My parents have also offered to take me and a friend out to Palm Springs this weekend as a graduation gift. I was SO blessed and shocked when my dad told me! So, this weekend my dad has the boys at home while the girls are out vacationing in Palm Springs. I almost want to stay home just to see what happens when the girls of the house are gone. 

     Watch... we'll come back and they'll all have Mohawks. ;)

In His Service,

~Hannah Boyd

Philippians 1:21

Pillowcase Dresses (Part 1!)

     I am SO blessed to have so many people that are getting involved and helping me as I prepare for my trip! I am leaving exactly a month from today (today being June second!) Yesterday some friends of mine opened their home and hosted a fun girly sewing day! We made dresses out of pillowcases for the girls I will be ministering to at the orphanage in Thailand. As the girls grow, the dresses will grow with them and turn into shirts. We had so much fun doing this together that I'm sure we'll be making more for future trips!

Cara (top right) and Amanda (bottom right) making their pillowcase dresses for the orphan girls.

Hard at work! 

Making the dresses.

Left to right: Audrey, Mrs. Hollis & Mrs. Heidi. with their first finished dresses!

Left to right: Amanda, Cara & me with our first dresses!

Left to right: Me, Amanda & Cara with our second finished dresses!

     The dresses turned out beautifully! Each one is so different and unique, just like the sweet girls who will be wearing them. We ended up finishing thirteen in one afternoon, with each dress taking about thirty minutes to make. Altogether we need to make thirty, so we will be getting together some time soon to get the next half done. Each dress will be sent off with a picture and letter from the person that made it, to make the experience more personalized and special for the orphans! I just can't wait to watch the girls choose and enjoy their pretty dresses. It should be a beautiful experience!

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:18