Emily Elizabeth Herb was born on May 28, 1998.  She was 5 lbs. 8 oz. at
birth.  She had no real health problems or any problems meeting her
developmental goals until she was 9 months old.  At that point they
discovered that she had pulmonary stenosis.  The cardiologist decided
only to follow her every 6 months with an echocardiogram and see how it
progressed.  When she was 15 months old she went for a well child visit
at the pediatricians.  We saw a new pediatrician in the group at this
visit.  When she enter the room she said to me "Did any of the other
physicians ever talk to you about genetic testing?"  That just blew me
away.  I was so shocked that I couldn't even ask any questions.  A day
later I called her back and asked her what she thought she had.  She
said that because of her heart issues, her size and also her facial
charateristics that it could be some type of syndrome but she was not
really sure what.  She referred us to a geneticist and we went for our
appointment.  As soon as we walked into the room they handed us
information on Williams Syndrome.  They said that they knew what was
wrong with her because of how the pediatrician described her.  However
the longer we were in the room the less sure they were that she had
Williams.  At 17 months she was walking although still not too steady on

her feet.  They suggested that we do the FISH.  We did and it came back
positive October 1999.  We immediately got her into early intervention.
She presently is doing very well.  She eats everything and always has.
We have had no health issues other than the pulmonary stenosis and at
her last echo they did find SVAS.  She is still very tiny.  She is 23
lbs. and 36 inches tall.  We know how lucky we are at this point not to
have a lot of health problems.  She goes to the IU preschool where she
gets PT, OT and ST as well as a regular preschool.  We only have
occasional problems with pinching and biting.  We have finally completed

potty training.  I truely believe that she is doing so well because of
the stimulation she gets from our other children Tyler and Natalie.
They love her so much and are so patient with her.  She is the light of
our life.  I can come home from a bad day at work and all she needs to
do is smile at me and I forget everything that happened that day.