I did have the game paused message. And all of my families were paused because two of them have babies that I didn't want to age while I was away.
All of the other families didn't change, just the one. And when I came back to the game the game paused message was still there.
When I unpaused it I got an email from the oldest child stating he was homesick and missed homecooking. And he was gone.