Everyone deserves a home. Everyone deserves to feel safe, and everyone should have a family that loves and supports them.
And so, over the last few years, Ryan and Wendy Kessler (and their three boys: Corey, Jordan, and Riley) have joyfully welcomed dozens of young adults and college students into their family. They offer mentorship, support, unconditional love, and, maybe most importantly, delicious food. Their kitchen is usually overflowing with people, and filled with the mouth-watering scents of freshly-chopped vegetables, simmering soups, and tasty treats baking in the oven to share.
On Monday nights, Wendy Kessler hosts a women’s get-together of about 25 people. They read, share, cook, and live life together. On Thursdays the Kesslers host the young men – a group of about dozen rowdy guys, including college students, young professionals, and a couple of the Kessler’s best friends from their own college days. They chat about life, play games with the boys in the backyard, do laundry, watch Seinfeld… and they eat like kings.
The relationships that have formed on these nights are something truly special. There is a rich sense of family that goes deeper than seeing the same people one night a week for food. You become one of Ryan and Wendy’s kids. You get pulled into the family without even realizing it. Generosity comes as naturally to them as breathing, and they never expect anything in return.
The thing that sets the Kessler Family apart – the thing that makes them extraordinary – is love. They live lives of extravagant, deliberate, expressive, unconditional love to everyone they encounter. And in doing that, they change dozens and dozens of lives every week.
We were so excited to get to spend some time with this beautiful family — as their boys played soccer in the yard, as they shared a delicious meal together, and as they munched on popcorn with a movie and game night!
