Say our "Prays"

We have made prayer a part of Norah and Justin's lives from the very beginning, since before they could speak. Currently they don't recite every word, and they often mistakenly start the table prayer at bedtime, but they do an admirable job remembering the common prayers provided the television is turned off. If we start to eat without prayers they shudder in shock and say "We forgot to say prays!" It's cute, so we've made no attempt to teach them to say "prayers" rather than "prays".

The conclusion of our night follows a predictable pattern.

"God Bless Norah and Justin, Mommy and Daddy, our Grandpa's and our Grandma's, our Great Grandma's and our Great Grandpa, our Aunts and Uncles, all our cousins, all our friends," then chaos takes over as we approach less personal, general categories, allowing the kids to fill in the blanks.

We generally hear "bless the happy people, the sad people, and the mad people." Justin started praying for the "ugly people" which never fails to aggravate Norah.

"Justin you can't say ugly people!" to which Justin raises his voice, lifts his chin and closes his eyes to defiantly restate "all da ugg-wee people!" Norah's mouth drops open again and her eyebrows furrow as she stares daggers of disapproval, prompting us to break into the prayer etiquette disagreement and assure everyone it's fully acceptable to pray for anyone no matter their looks. Once settled, they normally double back to double-bless a couple random family members along with canine buddies Missy, Ryder, and sometimes May (even though she's with God already), followed by a long thoughtful pause to insure nobody was omitted.

Order, volume and pace may vary, but one thing is truly consistent. The kids never, ever, under any circumstances fail to punctuate the prayer for blessings with "and Uncle Mark!" Nobody knows why, and they've never explained it, but Mark is always last, as if you can't say "Amen" without him. To our knowledge he hasn't been particularly sick or given cause for concern more than anyone else. There are no big family pictures of him on the wall to jog their memories, and they only see him once or twice a year at most (Evidently the attention he lavishes on them has not gone unnoticed). They don't seem overly concerned that he's in imminent peril, they just enjoy praying for him. Considering Mark and Denise have seen 2 of their 3 children married in the last 2 years, and only Katie (Justin's beloved "Sugar") remains single, maybe the kids are onto something?

So everyone take heart. No matter who you are, Norah and Justin are probably praying for you or some category to which you are at least loosely affiliated, but Uncle Mark, you evidently have nothing to fear.