To Cindy,
Advice is cheap, and I'm sure you've have enough to choke on. My only advice would be stop talking to, reading, or even watching the media coverage. You and you only know what is in your heart, and the media is never going to get it right. Listening to all the noise-makers is just going to make you angry and want to respond, when really most of it doesn't deserve your response. Turn off the TV, cancel the paper, and (after you read this!) turn off the computers! We have nothing to say that is going to fix this for you!
You should listen to LE. You should not depend solely on your defense attorney, because he is going to tell you what you want to hear. You need to listen to LE and understand everything they have. Don't look and listen with your grandmother eyes and ears, but try to learn the facts.
I strongly advise that you talk to your attorney and have HIM set up a polygraph for you and your husband and son. Once all three of you pass it, then let your attorney put those results out and it should quieten down most of the detractors.
About your daughter, you cannot change anything that has happened. She needs to know you love her and you can, in fact, forgive her for whatever she's put you through. She clearly did not feel that way to start with. I gather there has been some problems for a long time. So what? Everyone has problems, and it really isn't anyone's business. Your's have come out for the world to see, but the reality is that most of the issues your family has faced, someone right down the street has probably faced, too. As Solomon said, There is nothing new under the sun! Nothing that you face is uniquely yours.
Having said that, your daughter has clearly made some mistakes. You are not doing her any favor by ignoring that fact. She lied to police in the single most important event in your lives. She steals from her friends and family. She must be made to stand up and take the consequences. Once she does that, it will be much easier for her to face the rest of her life. She is going to have to be completely truthful with you and your family at some point and it will be easier if she knows you have already forgiven her.
As to Caylee, you are 100% correct that it is not wrong to have hope. We all join you in constant hope and prayer that she will be returned unharmed. Until we have definitive proof otherwise, we must assume she is OK. To believe otherwise would be a great injustice to her. However, you should also be receptive to facts that the evidence has shown. Something very dark happened around Caylee; human decomposition in a car trunk is not natural. As a nurse, you know that.
You should also know as a grandmother that you love Caylee with every beat of your heart and you have always done everything possible for her. Her happiness and joy is evident in all the pictures we've seen. As a bystander, I thank you for allowing us to share the beauty of the child with you. She is a precious little girl.
Finally, God and God alone is the giver and taker of life. Wherever Caylee is, she is SAFE in the arms of God.