The family of 10-year-old Kaylie Hammond came to Help Hope Live for medical fundraising in October 2025. Since then, their loving community has raised over $20,000 in Kaylie’s honor.
We interviewed mom Tammy, who adopted Kaylie and her brother in 2019, to learn about life with Kaylie and how fundraising has made an impact.
How did Kaylie and her brother become forever a part of your family?
We got the call to foster Kaylie in August 2016 when she was 4 months old. We were told that she was living with hydrocephalus, a misshapen head, and seizures. They didn’t know how long she would live.
Kaylie came with nothing—we had to run to the store to grab diapers and outfits.
The week when Kaylie turned 1, we got a call that she had just become a big sister, and we were asked if we wanted to foster her brother, Jack, too.
We loved Kaylie, so of course, it didn’t take long to fall in love with her brother.
We adopted them on February 7, 2019. Kaylie had spent 891 days in foster care.
Tell us about Kaylie’s brother and how he plays a role in her life.
Jack is now 9 years old, and he loves his sister Kaylie with a passion. He is her protector and one of her biggest fans.
He is making up for everything that Kaylie can’t do.
Jack is always thinking of Kaylie. If he wants to do something, he includes her. If he wants to go somewhere, he asks if Kaylie can come.
Once when we were at the zoo, a little boy kept turning around to stare at Kaylie. Jack stepped in between Kaylie and the little boy so he couldn’t do it anymore.
We talked about that time together, and I told Jack that next time, he can tell someone like that what Kaylie’s name is and invite them to come and say “Hi” to her.
Did you have prior experience with disabilities like Kaylie’s?
We have a niece who had seizures, and we had fostered a child before Kaylie who had epilepsy, but most of her diagnoses were unknown to us.
During a meeting about Kaylie, I received information about her that was full of things I had never heard of—hemimegalyncephaly, polymicrogyria, infantile spasms.
I did a lot of Googling and started to join Facebook Groups to get real-life info from the parents living through these diagnoses.
Kaylie did throw some new things at us here and there to keep us on our toes.
Through each diagnosis, we did the same things: Googled, joined groups, and talked to her medical team.
Early on with Kaylie, I told our other kids, we are going to love her as long as we have her. Whether she goes home with us or to heaven, we are going to make sure that she knows how much we love her.
How do you see Kaylie impact the people around her?
A lady at a woman’s church retreat told me she felt drawn to Kaylie and wanted to be near her. I have had people stop us and ask to pray over and for Kaylie.
It’s like the light that God has placed in Kaylie shines to give others hope and encouragement. Like she’s saying:
“If I can do these things and still be happy, so can you.”
She’s like a bright star on a dark night. Even on the worst days, when I am completely worn out from being up all night with her, I can look at Kaylie and feel like it will be okay.
Kaylie has endured so much, and still she smiles, still she laughs, still she loves to be included.
How does Kaylie communicate with you?
Kaylie has different noises for her needs. She will fuss and sound pitiful if she wants you to snuggle her. If you pick her up, she will smile really big or laugh like, “Ha! I got you to do what I wanted you to do!”
Kaylie can’t stretch on her own, so when she needs a stretch, she will throw her head and left arm back or push on us to give us a hint.
If you aren’t paying attention to her, she will start chatting to get your attention. Once she gets your attention, she’s content again.
If her dad comes home from work and talks to me first, she will be like, “Hey! Where’s my sugar!”
Tell us about a day in Kaylie’s life.
She gets up about 8 a.m. We do medications and get her breakfast started with her G-tube feeding tube. While she has breakfast, we usually snuggle on the couch.
She gets some time in her PPod, a specialized seating system. Then she gets some time with musical and light-up toys that we put in her lap. Sometimes she takes a nap.
We move her to a place where she can stretch out. Then lunch and more snuggles.
She gets a 4 p.m. meal and some more time in her PPod to watch TV or a tablet. Dad gets home at 5 p.m. and plays with her a little before we start our nighttime routines.
At bedtime, we have a story pod that plays piano music so she knows that it is time to rest.
Kaylie requires full-time care today just as she did when she was a baby. She has grown enough that carrying her around is becoming more difficult.
Loading and unloading her into a vehicle is a challenge, and her equipment is getting bigger. We need to pack a lot more now just to make a trip to her doctor appointments.
Have you been surprised by what insurance will and won’t cover for someone like Kaylie?
Insurance has monthly limits on her supplies that often run out before the month is through.
Kaylie needs medications 5 times per day, so we use between 20 to 25 syringes per day. Even though they know Kaylie can only receive her medications by mouth, they will cover the cost of only 4 syringes per month.
We get 30 pump bags covered by insurance per month. If one is defective, or stops working, it doesn’t matter—that limit still applies.
Insurance pays for an adaptive stroller. However, if Kaylie outgrows that stroller within 5 years, we have to beg for another one. If the old one breaks, they won’t pay for repairs or a replacement.
Outside of these supplies, we’ve had to purchase a blender that is powerful enough to help her home blends go smoothly through her feeding tube. We buy reusable bathroom pads out of pocket, as insurance will only pay for disposable ones, and you can’t choose your size.
For medical travel, insurance helps with 2 gas receipts, 1 meal, and just $90 of a hotel stay.
Would you want to sit in the same chair all day, every day? I wouldn’t. That’s why we bought a PPod with help from the foster care program. That cost alone was over $3,000.
What makes medical travel so difficult for Kaylie?
Kaylie’s specialists are in Cincinnati, which is around 350 miles from us. We make the trip at least once per month.
When we travel, we have to take:
- Clothing
- Her feeding pump and bags
- Her medication bag and syringes
- Frozen blends that we store in a cooler
- A suction pump
- Oxygen tanks
- A backpack with extra supplies for Kaylie and I
- Her stroller
- Her backpack and diaper bag
- Her blanket and pillow and my pillow
- My husband’s CPAP machine and his backpack
…Not to mention little things like snacks, tablets, charges, and a yarn bag so I can crochet while we wait.
We can’t just stop somewhere and pick up stuff we forgot—these are specialized pieces of medical equipment and necessities.
Right now, getting Kaylie in and out of our current vehicle is hard. Once we pack the van, her stroller is surrounded, so we can’t get her into and out of her chair until we arrive at a destination.
Her diaper changes have to be stored at the front seat. Sometimes we have to lay her on a changing pad on the floor of the bathroom.
We also have to unload and load the vehicle in all kinds of weather. If we make a stop, we have to unload to get to Kaylie and then load her chair again in the back.
A side-ramp wheelchair van would allow us to change Kaylie on the backseat in privacy. She could get in and out of the van without us having to make a manual transfer every time, and Kaylie could stay in her chair.
Having a safe and spacious van would be a game-changer for us. A true dream.
How did you find Help Hope Live, and why did you choose us for fundraising?
I had never heard of Help Hope Live before I found the website through a desperate Google search.
I had looked into several places for either grants or fundraising. We either didn’t meet their criteria or they were out of money, and we were told not to reapply.
Then I found Help Hope Live.
I liked the fact that we can’t touch the funds raised in Kaylie’s honor. For me, that means everything we raise is specifically being set aside to help with true medical and related needs. It’s not us borrowing from savings or moving funds around to make meeting these needs a reality.
Our Client Services Coordinator, Jen, is amazing. She has answered all my silly questions and helped me so much along the way.
Having that person to talk to gives me a peace that I’m not alone in this.
What have been some of your most successful fundraisers so far?
Our most successful fundraiser so far was our silent and live auction. A wonderful friend had reached out to plan that for us.
A fundraiser at Kaylie’s elementary school raised just over $10,200.
We’ve had success sharing the campaign on Facebook and asking family members and friends to share the post.
Living in a small community has a lot of perks.
Our community has been wonderful in sharing our campaign and attending or donating to our fundraisers in Kaylie’s honor. The kids at school love to see Kaylie. Our local EMS know Kaylie and are ready for whatever she throws at them.
Transportation is about more than just medical needs. Where would Kaylie and her brother like to go one day?
Jack wants to go to Disney! He has been asking for years. The beach is another top request.
Kaylie is happy to be wherever we are. I would love to take her somewhere with lots of sensory stimulation for her.
What keeps you strong on difficult days?
Faith! I pray a lot. I always try to look for the positives on the hard days. Maybe the sun was shining today. Maybe I got a hot shower today. Maybe a stranger smiled at me.
Kaylie keeps me going. Look at all she’s been through. If she can do it, I can, too.
If you could go back to that first year with Kaylie, what would you tell yourself and your family?
Keep swimming. God’s got this! That’s been our motto with Kaylie.
I would tell myself to step outside my comfort zone, and not to be afraid to seek second opinions sooner.
I would also tell myself that I can do hard things, and to be ready, because Kaylie is going to show you how strong you can be.
I wanted to be a nurse when I was in high school, and I wanted to work with children. One morning during our first long hospital stay with Kaylie, I got up and I questioned God.
Why did you give me Kaylie? I’m way out of my comfort zone here. I miss my husband and my other kids.
I was hit in the face with the answer:
God said clearly, look where you are. Look what you’re doing.
There I was, at the exact hospital I had wanted to work at when I was in high school, learning to be Kaylie’s “nurse.”
What does the word “hope” mean to you?
Hope means I still have something to hold onto. Hope is the reason to keep advocating for Kaylie—the hope that one day, there is a cure.
Hope is the reason to keep pushing for inclusion to be the norm for people like Kaylie. Hope is no one getting left out for their differences.
Hope is the reason I get up on the hard days: the hope that today will be the day we figure it all out.
Make a donation in Kaylie’s honor at helphopelive.org, and follow her adventures at Kaylie’s Little Light on Facebook and @tammyhammond649 on TikTok.
