**Help Us Build a Refuge for Special-Needs Families in Crisis**

My name is Jessica Leonard, and I'm a mother of two incredible kids — both on the autism spectrum — and the founder of **Lionheart's House of Bread**, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry.

This story didn't start in a boardroom. It started in a travel trailer.

When Hurricane Milton displaced our family in October 2024, we found ourselves in survival mode, learning firsthand just how few resources exist for families like ours in crisis. Hotels aren't built for sensory needs. Campgrounds aren't equipped for wandering behaviors or service animals. When you're a special-needs family and life falls apart, there's often nowhere safe to land.

Out of that hardship, God placed a vision on my heart: to build a place where special-needs families in crisis can find refuge, rest, and belonging — not despite their needs, but because of them. A place with fenced yards and secure locks for children who wander. A place where meltdowns are met with understanding, not judgment. A place that says, "You don't have to fit in here. You already belong."

That vision became Lionheart's House of Bread — named in honor of my grandparents, whose surname, Leonard, means "lionhearted," a tribute to the faith and strength they passed down to me.

We're still in the very beginning. We don't have land yet. What we have is a sourdough starter named Manna (itself an answered prayer from the hardest days after the hurricane), a heart to serve, and a growing vision for what this place could become: tiny homes with fenced yards, a guest lodge, a working farm, a baking ministry, and a campus where families can breathe again.

**Your gift today helps us take the first step** — toward land, toward a truck to move campers and rescue families, toward the very first family we get to welcome home.

Every gift, large or small, is tax-deductible, and every dollar moves us closer to being able to say yes to a family in crisis.

Thank you for being part of this story with us.

*"Bringing Young Lions to Christ Through Respite and Revival."*