Photo finish enhances festivities

It was 7 p.m. on Oct. 5 when I began to feel the first signs of

labor. I told my husband, Rick, that tonight was likely “the night,”

and we should get the other two children, Megan and Richard, ready

for bed and call Grandma to come over and watch them for the night.

As soon as my mom arrived, we began our journey to St. John’s

Hospital in Santa Monica. We decided to deliver at St. John’s, as

that is where both Megan and Richard were born. Upon arriving at the

hospital, my contractions were now only one minute apart. With the

help of my husband and the nurse (my doctor didn’t quite make the

delivery), Claire June was born the following day at 2:15 p.m. As a

proud father, Rick had taken many digital pictures of Claire’s first

breaths of life. What an incredible miracle -- the birth of a child.

Rick stayed with me until early that evening. As baby Claire and I

were doing fine, I urged him to go home to get back to Megan and

Richard and show them the awesome pictures of their new baby sister.

At around 8 p.m., Rick arrived back in Harbor View Homes where we

live, as well as my parents, to pick up the kids from my parents

house. In order to get Megan and Richard in their car seats, he had

to switch his car with mine, which was already parked outside my

parents’ house, and leave his car there overnight. While making the

switch, Rick thought he had locked the car, but must have forgotten

in the excitement of Claire’s arrival. Unfortunately, there were a

number of car burglaries that night, and items were not only taken

out of my sister’s car, but also ours. The items stolen from our car

were all replaceable with the one exception of our digital camera and

the first moments of Claire’s life.

The next morning, I called Rick to see how the kids enjoyed seeing

their new sister, and he broke the news to me of the burglary. I was

grateful no one was hurt, yet cried knowing I could never be able to

capture that moment again.

Claire is now almost 3 months old and celebrated her first

Christmas season this past week. Christmas morning brought more tears

-- happy ones -- as my husband surprised me with my stocking filled

with the pictures of Claire’s birth. Thanks to the Newport Beach

Police Department and Det. Ken Eischen, our items were recovered and

I received my best Christmas gift ever.

Thank you to the Newport Beach Police Department on behalf of the

Eusey family: Rick, Shannon, Megan, Richard and Claire.

SHANNON EUSEY

Newport Beach