Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Case of the Missing Praxis Scores

Moving is a messy business. Things get lost and often ruined; tears are shed, occasionally accompanied by a wailing and gnashing of teeth. Our recent move to Pennsylvania was one of these moves. The most valuable thing that went missing, however, was just a slip of paper: Andrew's Praxis test scores. This test is given to teachers to evaluate their ability to teach their subject. As arbitrary as that sounds, these scores are vital for a job application and Andrew's score report had vanished.

We searched everywhere we could think of, tearing apart the storage unit, digging through piles of Andrew's teaching papers but they were nowhere to be found. Prayer after prayer was said and yet, no answer was forthcoming. The next step was to just have the test administrator send another copy, right? Sure, if you want to wait three weeks and pay $40, which we didn't. So what did we do? We stalled.

Maybe it is in Andrew's electronic Placement File? Great idea! Uh, the site is down...still down...STILL not working. A week later it still wasn't working. Meanwhile, our stalling tactic had worked, Andrew had a job interview, but the school district was requesting that he bring his test scores with him to the interview. Drat! What now?

On the morning of the interview we were both a bundle of nerves. Andrew going to the interview without being fully prepared was weighing on both our minds. Just a few hours before the interview, I recalled that right before the move I had been making copies of the test for his PA Certification application. It seemed unlikely, but we both agreed that it couldn't hurt for Andrew to go back to the storage unit and look under the lid of our scanner. Amazingly, after a month of searching, the test had been there ALL ALONG! We were saved at the 11th hour by what we can only conclude was divine intervention!

Well, with confidence restored Andrew went to the job interview. Two grueling hours later he was offered the job. After much thought and prayer, he accepted. See? We told everyone that moving to Pennsylvania without a job wasn't crazy! This is just another example of how much our Father in Heaven loves and cares for us if we have faith and follow His will for us. We feel very blessed.

14 comments:

Becky J said...

Congrats to Andrew on the job!

Tiana said...

Oh Carrie that is so awesome! Congrats on the job but also on the answers to your prayers!!!! You are an amazing woman! The Lord does love you so much and is watching out for you!

Amanda said...

What an amazing blessing! Isn't that how it usually seems to work--right before it's required, you receive just what you need. Yay for Andrew's job and stability in PA!

henny said...

now that is quite a story!!

I'm so happy you were able to find it and get the job! woohoo!

Breinholt Family said...

Well I am just about in tears! I am so happy for you. I was just thinking about you while I swept my kitchen floor and had a nice cold drink of Brita Water! ha ha!
Love you guys!

Joseph and Tiffany said...

Congrats! That's great news!

Natalie said...

Wow! I am so glad that you were able to find it. I HATE losing things, and it always seems to be in the most obvious place after all.

Dejah said...

Wow, I'm glad that worked out! Congrats to Andrew for getting the job!

Lauren said...

Wow, so that's where it ended up. Crazy! So glad you found it, and I'm really excited about this new job!

Joy said...

Hooray!

Lindsay said...

I take this to mean that you're supposed to be there. :) Congrats on the new job! What a blessing!

Jenni said...

I'm so glad he's got a job!!! We have one right now that they called back a couple hours after the interview yesterday and said that they had been unable to reach one of the references and could he provide an alternate...(so he did) and oh, by the way, there wasn't a copy of his transcript in with his file, so could he send up that too. Um, ok, sure...today they called again and said they had gotten those parts, but his transcript included transfer credits and could he send a copy of his transcript from that other school too...geesh! All we can say is that after all this extra work they had better offer him the job!!!
We feel very hopeful about it--it's in a place where we would be quite content I think. We just need it to be official and then I will be able to sleep better at night.

Lisa said...

That's wonderful news! I'm so happy for you!

Hannah S said...

Congratulations on the job! What a relief!!

The same thing happened with Tyler's temple rec. With our stuff in storage too I looked in one last possible place and found it the night before my sisters sealing. phew.