Authors: Ed Smart,Lois Smart

Bringing Elizabeth Home (21 page)

There are so many people we'd like to thank for all of their love, prayers, support, donations, and help while Elizabeth was missing. Our family was deeply touched by everyone's generosity and selflessness during that time. We could never have imagined that so many people from all faiths, religious backgrounds, and different walks of life would have come together with the common goal of helping bring our daughter home. It would be nearly impossible to thank each of you individually, though we truly wish we could. Thank you to all of our family members—especially our parents, Charles and Dorotha, and Jenny and Myron—to our friends, members of our ward, and members of the church. Thank you to the volunteers, to the business owners who donated supplies during the search, and to the search teams for your tireless efforts. A special heartfelt thanks to the members of the Utah real estate and mortgage community, who lightened Ed's burden during the time Elizabeth was missing and helped him to maintain his business at a time when he simply couldn't do it alone. Thank you to the members of the Salt Lake City and other State of Utah law-enforcement agencies, including the Salt Lake City Police Department, the State Crime Lab, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department, and the FBI. Thank you to Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson for not giving up hope and keeping the investigation alive. Thank you to the Intrepid Group and to all the members of the media who stood by our side every day and broadcast updates on Elizabeth's story. We would never have been able to bring Elizabeth home without all of you—especially John Walsh,
America's Most Wanted
and
The John Walsh Show,
and the teams at
Good Morning America,
the
Today
show, the
CBS Morning Show, Larry King,
and 48
Hours
. Thanks to all of the print media who never stopped writing about Elizabeth's kidnapping.

We especially want to thank our publisher, who believed that we should write this book the way we wanted to. Thank you to our editor, Trace Murphy, for giving us the freedom to tell our story. Thanks to everyone at Doubleday, including Suzanne Herz for all of your publicity efforts, Joan Schadt, Michelle Rapkin, Michael Palgon, and Steve Rubin. Also, thanks to Adam Mitchell for all of your terrific help in indexing and researching materials.

We want to express our deepest love and appreciation to our six children—Charles, Elizabeth, Edward, Mary Katherine, Andrew, and William. This has been a journey of hope and prayer for all of us. We love you very much. We know these months have not been easy on any of you, but together, with love and commitment, we remain a family.

To our coauthor, Laura Morton. We feel blessed to have found the right person to help us share our journey. Laura shared our vision for this story from the moment we met. We feel that she truly walked in our shoes. She helped us to express ourselves on a subject that was so very hard for us to revisit. Thank you for your sensitivity and support throughout the writing process. We will never forget the tears, joy, and laughter spent on this endeavor. We believe without a doubt that our paths were meant to cross.

And the miracle continues. . . .