This morning we received news from one of the doctors at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, that an MRI performed on Ashley yesterday indicates new tumor growth in Ashley's brain, in the same vicinity as the original tumor. Ashley's cancer is back.

Obviously, we are devastated by this news. We really thought that Ashley had beaten her cancer for good. This caught us totally by surprise.

Fortunately, Ashley was still asleep when the dreaded phone call came. After hanging up the phone, a flood of emotion swept over me and I couldn't hold back the tears. Once Susan and I had regained our composure, we went back into our bedroom where Ashley was asleep on our bed, and woke her up to tell her the news.

I said something like, "Hey, sweetie. Doctor Bowers just called from Children's. He looked at your MRI from yesterday, and he said there are some new spots. It looks like your cancer has come back." Ashley looked up at Susan and said, rather matter-of-factly, "Hmm. That's not good." After another moment's thought, she brightened up a little bit and asked, "Does this mean I get another wish?!"

Susan and I couldn't help but laugh. It reminded me of the time a few years ago, shortly after her original diagnosis, when we were all sitting in church one Wednesday evening. The man who was giving the devotional talk mentioned Ashley's name. Ashley, almost 10 years old at the time, leaned over and whispered to Susan, "What did he say about me?" "He's just talking about how you are sick," was the response; to which Ashley retorted, "I'm not sick, I just have a brain tumor!" We laughed then, too. Her perspective on this whole cancer ordeal often catches us off-guard.