Giving Ashley's hand a squeeze, Susan looked down at her daughter and shared one of their talks about going through chemotherapy again.
Wiping away the tears before they could fall down on her cheeks, Susan noted Ashley's comment that "it's not fun."
"The only thing that I could tell her is that she is setting an example for God. She is his example of power and faith to others," Susan said. "We all know she's a strong girl. We're going to get through this."
"What other choice do we have?" Paul added. "It's not something that's going away. We could sit around and feel sorry for ourselves and for Ashley, or we can move forward.
"We're moving forward. We have to deal with it. We're living life to its fullest every day and we keep pressing on.
"As terrible, no, as horrific as this has been for our family, there has still been a lot of happiness. There is still a lot of laughter in this house," Paul said, sharing an incident that took place the night before when Ashley was singing at the top of her lungs, prompting a major round of teasing from the entire family.
"We haven't let this get us down," Paul said.
Walking into the dining room to get a tissue, Susan said so many people have come up to her and said, 'I don't think I would have the strength to go through this.'
"But the Bible tells us that God won't give us more than we can bear. And it's the truth," she added. "The important thing is that you can't get into the blaming game. It's no one's fault. You have to be strong and be supportive of each other."
Faith, along with a steady stream of prayers, has long been a mainstay of the O'Rear household, even before Ashley's first diagnosis.
Paul, a youth minister at the College Street Church of Christ in Waxahachie, said he has found incredible strength and comfort in the volume of prayers that have been said for Ashley and his family.
"It's almost mind-blowing when I hear of how many people are praying for her, and for us -- for her healing and for our strength," Paul said. "There is a lot of comfort knowing that our
name is coming before God by a lot of people."
"It never ceases to amaze me how many
people know about Ashley and are genuinely concerned about her,"
he said.
So much so, in fact, it has led to the creation
of an international Web site for children with cancer.
"Cancerkids.org originated from all
of the e-mails that I was answering when Ashley first got sick,"
Paul explained. "In a way, it was therapy for me when we were spending
so much time at the hospital.
"I would come home late at night and
start answering all the responses. Honestly, there were so many people
that were concerned about Ashley I couldn't keep up with answering them
all. So, I started a Web site, posting updates on her condition and establishing
links to different cancer sites for families with sick children.
Along the way, it dawned on me that there
were other families out there in the same situation."