Meet Lizzie: The Search for Sunshine

May 20

Some families spend a lifetime doing everything they can just to make daily life a little safer, easier, and a little more accessible for the people they love most. We’d like to introduce you to Lizzie and her mother, Michele. Born with spina bifida, Lizzie is blind, deaf, and requires full-time, hands-on care. For years, Michele has built her life around caring for her daughter with extraordinary devotion, love, and humility. And despite the physical, emotional, and financial weight caregiving can carry, she continues showing up for Lizzie every single day with unwavering strength.

When Sunshine on a Ranney Day selected Lizzie’s family, one thing immediately stood out to their team:

“Her single mom, Michele, so clearly loves Lizzie deeply and has structured her life around giving Lizzie the absolute best life possible.”

That love is impossible to miss. And now, after years of navigating inaccessible spaces and difficult daily routines, Lizzie is searching for a donor to help make a life-changing renovation possible through SOARD. For families like theirs, accessibility is not about convenience… it is about dignity, safety, independence, and relief.

Sunshine on a Ranney Day’s mission is grounded in creating spaces where children and individuals with disabilities can feel safe, seen, and fully themselves. Through dream bedrooms, therapy rooms, and accessible bathroom renovations, they transform homes into spaces designed specifically around each child’s unique needs and personality.

As their team beautifully shared:

“Every child deserves the dignity of having a space that works for them and not against them.”

Right now, Lizzie’s bathroom works against her. The space is extremely tight, making it difficult for Michele to safely assist with everyday care routines. Simple tasks many people never think twice about, like bathing, dressing, and drying off, have become physically exhausting and increasingly unsafe. According to Sunshine on a Ranney Day, simply widening the bathroom doorway and installing a zero-entry shower would dramatically decrease obstacles and trip hazards while making the entire process safer and less stressful for both Lizzie and Michele.

And the impact of these transformations extends far beyond construction. The Sunshine team shared that some of the most meaningful moments happen after reveal day, when families begin experiencing what accessibility truly changes inside a home:

“We’ve gotten feedback from families who received therapy room makeovers saying their child feels so much safer and more comfortable in the home.”

They’ve also witnessed children gaining greater independence for the very first time:

“One of our biggest goals and motivators is hearing that a child was able to shower more independently than before.”

For medically complex families, these moments are life-changing, and yet, what struck us most while learning about SOARD was not just the renovations themselves, but the heart behind them. Their team described reveal day as a constant reminder of why they do this work… that every stressful detail, construction delay, and fundraising hurdle becomes worth it when families finally realize they are no longer carrying everything alone. That is exactly why we are sharing Lizzie’s story.

At Jude&Jojos Photography, our mission has always been rooted in advocacy through storytelling. We believe families navigating disabilities and medical complexities deserve to be seen, supported, celebrated, and rallied around by their communities.