Hope That Holds.

That's a good way to phrase it. Honestly, everyone I've ever known and trusted who told me they felt like they'd had a prayer "answered" -- in every case it was a matter of suddenly knowing something or understanding something that seemed to come from somewhere other than their own heads. It's not, like, some kind of Harry Potter silliness. Prayer seems to me to work mainly on the basis of wisdom. Which is not a bad thing. There's really no problem that won't get a little bit better if you genuinely understand what the hell is going on.