What If We Bought Water for Christmas?

I can remember the exact moment.
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I stood at the sink washing dishes, the kids circling around me—a herd of little footsteps, the constant background to any chore. Our youngest two had recently joined the chaos, coming to us from Sierra Leone. Their adoption was both beautiful and heartbreaking, as they all are. The memories from our trips to Sierra Leone, seeing the complexities of life, left me in a constant state of wondering.

Is there a way to contribute to a world where mothers don’t die during childbirth, where fathers can care for kids, and where the adoption of orphans is unnecessary?

Clean water cascaded from the faucet over my dirty dishes.

I grabbed a clear glass, filled it with water, tied a red ribbon around it, and walked outside.

I placed it in the dirt and snapped a picture.

I texted it to a couple of girlfriends, also moms who were likely clearing their kitchens and preparing for evening routines.

“What if we bought water for Christmas?”

The realities of access to clean water were consuming. I was beginning to understand how something as basic as clean water could reverse many of the things that tear families apart in the developing world. The very world from which we brought home our kids.

How can it be that the lack of access to clean water takes and complicates the lives of so many parents and children?

That question began a journey to rally the fierceness of a mothers’ love to keep families together and children alive.

And so we began. We bought water for Christmas, our families taking a portion of our holiday budgets to fund water projects in Liberia.

Over the years, our efforts expanded and our passion grew.

Yet, as I began to visit other places like Sierra Leone and Liberia, I discovered the need for clean water was simple to understand. But the solutions were not.

Becky and I met on one of those trips. Her experience and education brought wisdom to my passionate, but admittedly naive, intentions.

Wells are amazing, but they break. Who fixes them after we’re gone? Our best intentions often have unintended consequences.

Access to clean water requires communities to take ownership. Are there resources already in place that let local communities address problems from within?

And so began The Adventure Project—an effort to respond intentionally and wisely to issues of poverty by supporting jobs. Jobs that enable parents to care for their own families while providing needed resources to their communities.

Over the years, we’ve worked on solutions at The Adventure Project that created opportunities for families to lift themselves out of poverty while meeting a community need.

That is why I get so excited whenever our water campaign rolls around every year. It feels wonderfully full circle. A dream coming true.

And so here we are again.

We’re buying water again for Labor Day—celebrating not only the clean water the projects provide, but also the jobs they create.

Our new partner in Rwanda is IRIBA Water Group, a social enterprise that checks all the boxes.

IRIBA was founded by Yvette, a Rwandan woman with a vision for her own community. IRIBA provides access to clean water through Water ATMs—installed into municipal water lines, maintained by locally trained professionals, and operated by local women.

Employed by IRIBA, local mothers can provide for their families.

At the same time, ready access to clean water provides for their communities.

And IRIBA is ready to scale to bring more Water ATMs to schools across the country and neighborhoods across Kigali.

Check. Check. Check.

And now, this Labor Day, there is one more reason to give.

A generous donor shares our passion for partnering with IRIBA. She will match every gift made during the campaign so we can deploy already built Water ATMs into communities faster. Your gift won't just provide clean water and meaningful work—it will go twice as far.

Those little kids who once circled my feet while I washed dishes are now shuttling around their own apartments and dorm rooms. My kitchen is a little quieter these days.

But what hasn't changed is our family's intention and the intention of our The Adventure Project donors to buy water, even in the challenges of doing so.

We want to live in the complexities—to give generously, yes. But also to give wisely.

Founder of IRIBA, Yvette says, “We are not trying to impress anyone, we are trying to make sure that the people whom we are serving are truly, truly served, they are satisfied. What we are giving them is not short-term relief because they have seen these things before. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. We don’t want to make the same mistake. We want to make sure this is something that lasts.”

Over 15 years ago, it started for me with a glass of water, a red ribbon, a few moms, and a question:

“What if we bought water for Christmas?”

This Labor Day, we're asking it again, but in a new way.

What if this weekend we partner together with IRIBA to keep water flowing? If you’d like to get your gift matched, you can give early here.