Joy of Fatherhood Held Hostage : Family: Videotape made in Santa Ana may give Jesse Turner, held in Beirut since 1987, a look at the child that he’s never seen.

Three-year-old Joanne Turner has never seen her father, Jonathon. He has been held hostage in Beirut since 1987, shortly before she was born.

But soon, Jonathon (Jesse) Turner may get his first glimpse of his daughter in a videotaped family celebration held in his honor, which may be televised internationally on Cable News Network within the next few days, a CNN spokesman said.

Dressed in a black-and-white dress with a red polka-dot bow in her hair, Joanne delivered the message to her father into a television camera: “I love you.”

“It’s a hope and a wish” that he will be able to see the tape, said Turner’s mother, Estelle Ronneburg. She spoke at a party videotaped at a Santa Ana school Friday morning. The taping was organized by an Orange County-based philanthropic group called Points of Light.

“Somehow, they will get the tape to Lebanon,” said Nancy Fontaine, who organizes support activities for the hostages’ families. “Somehow, Jesse will know that we love him and care.”

The celebration, held at Pride Development School, doubled as a birthday party for Turner’s stepfather, Eugene, who will turn 62 on Tuesday. Preschoolers sang and blew out candles on three chocolate cakes.

Jamal Burns, 8, read a message to Turner on behalf of the schoolchildren. “The holidays are coming and Joanna and the children of Points of Light hope that you are going to be home to make it a wonderful Christmas,” he said. “You are in our hearts and thoughts.”

“We wish that he would come back and see his daughter for the first time,” said Turner’s wife, Badr. “I hope that I can soon be back with Johnny.”

Turner, 41, was kidnaped from Beirut University where he was a visiting mathematics and computer-science professor. Badr, 39, was then four months pregnant with Joanne. Family members said that hostages held with Turner who have since been released said he has learned that he has daughter, but knows nothing about her.

Badr Turner and her daughter live with his parents in Boise, Idaho, and traveled to Orange County this week to attend the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge annual awards dinner where Fontaine was honored for her work with families of hostages.

Fontaine said she decided to organize the party for the Turners “as a thank-you.”

After singing at the party, the children finger-painted yellow and blue dots on a large sign that read, “Jesse, we all want you home.”

Estelle Ronneburg said that Joanne “knows she has a daddy and that he can’t come home yet. She asks about him frequently, but she’s not old enough to understand what’s going on.”

Joanne, who was raised in the United Arab Emirates and speaks only Arabic, said through her mother that she wants her father back: “I want to hug him. I want to touch his beard.”

After the ceremony, the family took Joanne to Disneyland, where Badr Turner said they would see “It’s a Small World” and visit one of Joanne’s favorite characters, Mickey Mouse.