at 4 years
old.She was born November 24, 2000 by c-section because she was not thriving in the womb. Dr. Angela Anderson set us up with an appointment right away with the heart doctor in Rapid City. The minute Dr. Spangler saw her, he said he was very sure that she had Williams Syndrome. We had no idea what that meant or how it would affect Ashley or us for that matter. After I had given birth to 5 healthy kids and my husband having 2 healthy kids, this came as such a shock and adjustment for us.
We headed down to Omaha for her first heart surgery at 10 weeks of age where they did a heart catheterization and also did the FISH test, which of course came back positive.
We didn't know about the special formula at that time, so we experienced the difficulty of having her hold anything down with her high calcium levels. After switching to Calcilo XD formula, we then saw a remarkable difference in her attitude and her starting to thrive. She didn't eat any solids until she was 17 months old. She didn't crawl until about a year old and then didn't walk until she was 19 months old.
Ashley also faced dental and eye surgery at the age of 3 and will now be facing knee surgery in November 2005 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN.
We had her in the early intervention program, Birth to Three, which gave her speech therapy and OT therapy, they worked with her on her fine and gross motor skills every week. Judy S, Reva S, Vicky H and Karin H, were and ARE absolutely wonderful!!!!!
Ashley lives here in Spearfish, South Dakota with her family -- wonderful brothers Chris (19), Philip (15), Joshua (10), Jacob (7), Daddy (Dave) and Mommy (Jackie). She has 3 other sisters, Jessica (20) who lives in Oklahoma, Diana (18) (WHOM ASHLEY ADORES!!!), lives in Ft. Worth, Texas and Amanda (16), who lives in Oregon. Her beloved Daddy (Dave) was deployed for 6 months in 2003. She is Daddy's girl all the way. When he comes home from work, she runs to him and makes him take off his uniform jacket and boots because she KNOWS Daddy will stay then. She wants nothing to do with anyone except her Daddy. LOL UNLESS you ask her if she wants to go for a ride to McDonald's for a Happy Meal....grin
Ashley is now in Miss Betty's class after graduating from Reva's class, which was hard because Reva has been with Ashley since she was 7 months old!! But anyways she LOVES riding the small yellow bus and is thriving with being around kids and loves to sing and dance and now annoy her older brothers....grin. Wiggles are her favorite along with Monster's Inc. She can keep up with the best of them. She LOVES the outdoors and has a smile for everyone she sees -- even at the doctor's when she is sick.
We are so blessed to have her a part of our family and we love her dearly. She became a light in our lives and brought laughter to all of us. I thank God for entrusting Ashley into our care.
