founding Family

We are the Founding Family, the Bynum family ~ affectionately known as the #bynumfive

Our princess in the middle is Tessa Rayne. She was born in 2010 and diagnosed a few months after birth with Congenital CMV. This virus changed her life, but by no means, rules or defines her life. She is absolute joy and light. She moves around her environment being carried or pushed in her wheelchair. She hears the world around her with her bilateral cochlear implants and she sees a bit better with her glasses. Brain damage caused by the virus resulted in severe cerebral palsy and epilepsy, but those things are just part of her story, by no means, all of it!

Isolation is one of the biggest hurdles we consistently try hard to overcome as a family. Emotional, mental and physical exhaustion threaten our efforts at times. We know our struggles may be a little different, but struggling is in no way unique to our family.

Tessa absolutely loves time with family and friends ~ I think if she could tell us, she'd say there's nothing better. We believe God made us for relationships. We believe He designed us for community and connections. We are on this nonprofit adventure to help coordinate opportunities within our community, providing simple solutions to business owners/facility owners, to help create community for families like ours and for families different than ours.

Suffering is real and unfortunately our struggles can creep in and further separate us, but we are believing that we can come together and help shoulder each other's burdens by fostering relationships within our communities.

It won't be perfect, but it could be beautiful. And if there's anything that my little girl has taught me ~ it's to move through life, a moment at a time, persevering through the things that try and stand in the way of our joy.