From Strangers to Heart Family: My Journey With CT By Ryanna Cook, Mrs. Washington America 2025
Before I ever marveled at the beauty of the Kenyan landscapes or held the hand of a child in Kibera, I was a young twenty-something from Washington state who understood poverty from the inside out– at least, in America.
I grew up moving 1-2 times per year, living in, at best, unkept subsidized apartments - and at worst with my three sisters in a dark, single-window basement tucked within an alleyway. Our single mother had started her adult journey as a drop-out teen mom with burned bridges - each of us girls having different fathers who were either too unsafe to be around or who just didn’t want to be around. Our household survived on tax-funded resources - food stamps, free lunch programs, and community donations. We shared everything. But it often wasn’t enough, and we endured the abuse and neglect that often accompany poverty.
Those years left a mark, but they also planted a seed. Because even in those hardest moments, as we felt the cold sting of shame – a few people chose to place themselves within our reach, offering stability, resources, and love. People who became family to me, whether related or not – my heart family. They showed me that I could lead others in love one day. Their belief in me built belief in myself, and I became the first in my family to graduate from high school and to attend and graduate from college. I broke cycles of poverty and abuse– having married my dream partner, building successful businesses, saving our niece from those same cycles and adopting her, and building our dream home, and - just this year - earned the title of Mrs. Washington America. All because others showed up for me.
The heart of my story didn’t fully awaken my sense of purpose until 2014, when I took a leap of faith and joined a group of strangers traveling to Kenya with Crossing Thresholds. I wanted to positively impact a community, but hardly had a sense of what I was walking into - in fact, I had only just learned of CT via an acquaintance who heard Carter Via speak on NPR while she was working in California! I took my first trans-Atlantic flight with my husband’s full support, and met CT organizers and participants for the first time, in Kenya!
During that first trip, I learned lessons of the heart that I carry with me to this day. From Carter’s own words: real change happens when we meet people where they are. Not where we expect them to be. Not where it’s most comfortable. That’s where dignity lives. That’s where partnership begins. And that’s where sustainable, soul-deep transformation takes root. It’s through that transformation that we forge deep human connections, whether with locals or trip participants. This connection cultivated the expansion of a space I curated, protected, and until then, kept small: my heart family. I was validated. I was liberated. I came home ready to solve problems, yearning to give more.
And that was the point. We NEED to connect communities at a familial level to ignite a broad outreach, to inspire others to WANT to serve and mentor. It’s in disconnection that we leave those who need us, behind.
And it was this unusual outcome that inspired my husband to attend his first trip the following year - the yearning to learn and teach, to touch and be touched.
Since my first trip, my husband and I have made a combined eight visits to Kibera and two Mount Kilimanjaro fund-raising trips. Later this month, I’ll board a plane for my fifth personal trip, and my heart is already there – ready to embrace my heart family, and expand it.
I’ve helped organize the FAFU thrift store, guest-taught art, math, and science, funded an entire school’s textbooks, filled libraries, helped construct Mobjap School and its protective firewall– even placing my father figure’s ashes in the mortar. I’ve conducted home surveys to understand what families truly need and spent hours mentoring children across our schools, listening to their dreams, comforting their hurts, and celebrating their wins.
It’s messy. It’s emotional. It’s incredibly human. But more than anything, it’s love in action. CT is not only an extension of my heart family, but it’s where others find theirs. We dance together. We cry together. We learn from one another in ways no textbook could ever teach. This work isn’t just changing lives in Kibera. It’s changing us. It changes how we see the world, how we parent, how we lead, and how we love.
As Mrs. Washington America, I speak often about my platform: Breaking Cycles: Tools for Our Vulnerable Youth. From my life experience through my over 10 years with CT, I KNOW that breaking cycles anywhere helps break cycles everywhere. I know it, because I lived it– I AM what happens when we invest in the lives of children. In Kibera - your mentorship, presence, and love can empower the youth to become beacons of hope.
That’s why I keep returning. That’s why I’m writing this.
To invite you to take the leap I once did. To join us - whether with your boots on the ground in Kenya or by sponsoring a student or project from wherever you are. You don’t need to have all the answers. You don’t need to speak Swahili. You just need to show up with an open heart, ready to learn - and expecting to get a little dirty.
I hope I’ll see you in Kibera.
- By Ryanna Cook, Mrs. Washington America 2025
