A story with a truly happy ending

Under the specter of war, with the economy in a tailspin and as our terrorist threat level was raised to orange, dropped to yellow and then boosted again, one news story shone through to amaze and uplift us.

Elizabeth Smart, taken from her family's home in Salt Lake City nine months ago, was home again.

This was the happy ending that was all but unheard of. Decades of painful media reports have taught us that 14-year-old girls abducted at knifepoint typically don't come home alive. Parents cling to hope until some grisly clue to their child's true fate emerges.

No, the news wasn't all good.

Elizabeth's captors, a homeless, married couple, stand charged with aggravated sexual assault along with aggravated burglary and kidnapping. Investigators say the husband took her as his second "wife."

But Elizabeth is home now with parents, siblings and extended family who love her dearly. The whole world wants her to recover physically and emotionally from her ordeal. She is in a place where that can happen.