Emma is home

Today Andy requested that Laura and I meet with him and Lily at their house without our kids to talk parenting stuff – clearly important but quite vague. When we got there we talked about how Ezra is progressing but then they switched gears to the actual purpose of the meeting. They discovered last night that Andrew had been touching Emma inappropriately on at least 3 occasions. They believe it hasn’t happened more than that but they don’t feel that they can keep her safe seeing as this happened despite then being on their guard against the possibility of something like this. We sincerely hope that Andrew gets the help he needs but we aren’t leaving Emma there based on hope. For her sake and his we brought her home with us tonight. Thus far she has shown no signs of being traumatized by Andrew so we are avoiding turning it into a present trauma but we will be watchful for signs and tell her the truth if and when it becomes an issue for her.

On a happier note, we went to church at the new ward today (before we knew anything about this situation) and were warmly welcomed by many people. We feel very good about this ward for our family.

Notes from church

I didn’t realize that Samaria was the land given to the tribe of Ephraim and half of Manasseh – perhaps the fact they they were intermarrying with gentiles while the main body of the Jews were in bondage elsewhere is what caused that their posterity would be spread further throughout the world. This would be where Lehi and Nephi were from (prior to the bondage and the intermarriage).

We talk of Solomon’s strength becoming his downfall. We speak of wealth becoming a distraction. Certainly wealth can be a distraction but the problem is the distraction, not the wealth. As proven by my own experience distractions can come in the form of poverty or challenge just as much as wealth can.

“You and your wives, and the young men and young women are volunteer angels by covenant at baptism.”