It never fails.

The minute we get into our car to go anywhere, at least 2 of our kids complain, "I'm thirsty!" It doesn't tug at my heart because I know they are merely stalling.

In July 2008, I traveled to Ethiopia to meet and bring home our youngest daughter, Nina Rahel. I was prepared for many things when I embarked on that journey. What I wasn't prepared for was the moment our plane lifted off in Addis Ababa, and I realized that I'd left part of my heart there on the ground.

The above photo is my friend, Danny. Danny lives across the street from the care center where our daughter lived for the first 3 months of her life. He was 11 years old at the time (is now 13), and he graciously escorted me around the surrounding area, taught me some Amharic, laughed at my mispronunciation of nearly everything, and politely hinted that he'd be thrilled if I'd leave my camera there with him.

In the United States, we use about 400 billions gallons of water each day; the average family of four is responsible for about 400 gallons per day.

But imagine if you had NO CLEAN WATER. Imagine sweating and straining to haul contaminated water back to your family. Imagine suffering from preventable things like diarrhea, parasites or leeches. Unbelievably, 80% of all diseases in the world are caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.

"Out of sight out of mind" works wonders. But when someone mentions those who lug 40-pound containers of dirty water for miles every day, there is no "out of sight out of mind" for me. The person who I see carrying out that task is Danny. He's 13 years old. He has his entire life ahead of him -- a life that should not be cut short or affected in any way due to a lack of clean, safe water.

When Danny and his brother and sister say that they are thirsty, they aren't stalling. When I think about what they must do to quench that thirst, I can't NOT do something.

Therefore, in the next three months, I'm going to raise $25,000 to build clean water wells for the millions who need them. That amount of money will provide clean, safe drinking water for 1250 people for 20 YEARS!

Through outright donations as well as the sales of anklets we're making to support this cause (which was our oldest daughter Grace's idea) we WILL reach this goal.

Let us do some math, shall we? $25,000 SEEMS like a lot of money. But over a 12-week campaign, it's approximately $2100 per week. Which is $300 per day. I know how long the line at Starbucks is each day. I'm usually in it. I assume people spend an average of $4 at Starbucks. So, if just 75 people per day, or 7 people per business hour decided that giving a child clean, safe drinking water for 20 years was more valuable than drinking a Frappaccino that, while enjoyable, would be gone in 20 minutes, we'd meet our goal.

Through the efforts of this amazing organization, we have an incredible opportunity to provide clean water for those in need. And the great thing about donating to charity: water is that 100% of donations go directly to the water projects, and we'll get to see exactly what projects our dollars funded.

In the words of a dear friend, "LET'S GO!"