Chess Pieces of Life

If you have been reading my blog for a while then you read this post here about stepping into the highest calling God has for me and going back to get my Masters to be a Child Life Specialist. The first necessary step was to the take the GRE. I signed up a couple weeks ago and then took it on Friday. What I thought would be a normal day turned out to be a faith building event....


I had Friday off of work as the family I nannyed for was headed to Tennessee for Dollywood to make use of the Labor Day weekend. That gave me the day to sleep in, review concepts, and rest before taking this humongous test that I was terrified of. (ex. I don't do well with tests, it makes my stomach hurt sooo bad and I get shakes) I also had friends coming up from Florida to stay with me since the daughter was competing in a soccer tournament near my house.

As I cleaned and got ready for the guests to arrive many people called me, texted me, and prayed over me for the test. I am forever grateful to these people because I am sure that is what helped to keep me so calm that day. Just another reminder of how God uses other people in your life to remind you of the love and care he has for you.

Anyways my friends got in and I had about an hour left before I needed to leave to head down there. We chatted for a bit and I reviewed a little more and then got my stuff ready. They decided they would hang out at the house until I got done taking the test. I left early as I was worried I might hit traffic and just wanted to be on the safe side. They prayed over me before I got in the car and headed down. Traffic on the highway was clear as day but then getting off took a bit of time, but not to worry I left early enough to get there early. I got there around 4:30, went to the bathroom and then went to check in. After filling out a piece of paper saying that I was me and that I was taking my own test I sat down and waited for my named to be called. I sat for about 20 minutes when I heard my name.

"Miss Robinson?"

I got up confidently and went to the door where the lady was standing.

"Do you have another form of ID that is not expired?" -- dumb look on my face and then realization hit me.
"Probably not with me but at home"
"Well I cannot test you with out an unexpired form of ID."

BOOM. HEART SANK. In my head was 1,000 thoughts. I just paid 185 dollars and they wont let me take the test. Crap traffic is a mess it's gonna take me forever to get home. Holy cow how could I have been this dumb.

(Side Story - I misplaced my drivers license about a month ago and have not gotten around to getting another one. Any time I have been ID I have just used my military ID from when I was still in college and was allowed to have one, that one expired in 2011...so the only form of id I had was my passport, which was at home.)

As I went to the front desk to talk to the gentlemen I explained that I had my passport at home, and if I could go get it and bring it back and still take the test. This was his response.

"You can have till 5:30, then we can't allow you to test"

OH NO. Rush hour traffic, it took me 20 minutes to get here...doing the math in my head amongst questioning why this is happening to me I took a breath and got on the phone immediately. My friend Patrick was at my house still and I needed him in this clutch moment. He answered the phone and I talked as I was panicking about the situation. He went in my not clean room and found my passport and headed down as fast as he could. I decided to meet him at the gas station right off the exit so that I could just get back to the place as fast as I could. The clock was moving and I only had 30 minutes to get back there to take my test.

He ended up getting to me at exactly 5:20 and after looking on my maps I found a back way to get to the testing center and needed the roads to be clear so I could make what would have been a 10 minute trip into 5. After breaking many laws and do not enters and one road ways, I was able to make it to the center in 3 minutes. I got out of my car in my maxi dress and ran as fast I could into the building with my passport.

(All the while no one knew what was going on and people were sending me prayer texts thinking I was in the test... I was a mess)

I walked back in sat down at the ladies desk and she looked up at me and said.

"I already marked you as a no show."

------------------Head in hands and tears about to emerge--------------------

I said "The guy told me I had until 5:30 to get back here, I have to take this test"

She looked at me and said "Well what you are going to have to do is take the test in less time"

As she said this I perked up to listen to what she had to say. Which was basically it was like my test started at 5 but I missed 24 minutes of it so I couldn't get those back, if I finished a section early, I needed to move on and not take any of the breaks. After agreeing that it was totally ok and that I was a fast test taker she signed me in and got me to a computer.

A lot had happened in an hour and I had not even started the test.

As I sat there I took a moment to pray and had a talk with God telling him that he had to come through for me in this moment, for stamina, and knowledge and peace.

The test was long for sure, but I finished every section early and just prayed through the entire process. When I had about 2 sections left I was getting weak but took a moment to lay my head down and know that in another hour or less I would be done and I would know my tentative results.

At the end of the test, I clicked through everything and finally got the page I wanted to see.



VERBAL : 150

QUANTITATIVE : 154



My heart dropped. I got the scores. Not only got the scores but my math was 4 points higher then I needed it to be. I quietly clapped my hands and couldn't click through fast enough to get out of there and go be happy after all that happened that day.

To say it was faith building is an understatement, I know God never gives you something you can't handle, He knew I could, He just needed me to have full faith in him.

Jenny