On Christmas Eve, I'm turning 29.

While I am in love with my birthday, this one will be bittersweet for two reasons:

1. This is my last year as a twenty-something.
2. This is the first birthday I will celebrate without the woman who brought me into this world.

On October 25, 2012 I said goodbye to my first friend, my constant source of acceptance, and even the person I loved first, my mom, Michelle "Micki" Tkach Cummings.

To some, it seems unfair that at 59, the bright light of a woman who loved with such reckless abandon, grace, and compassion could be extinguished in the day to day lives of those she meant the world to. I have to agree that there is a level of injustice to it all.

But then I considered the following: millions of people don't live to see their fifth birthdays. Young children lose and are in danger of losing their mothers everyday as brave women go to heroic lengths to provide for their families. And why? Why is something so precious as life so perilous for so many people?

It's simple: They don't have access to clean, safe water.

This year, I want to celebrate the legacy my mom left for me to live in her absence. I want to celebrate the 29 dynamic years I had with a woman whose life was marked by care for others. In her honor, because she taught me to see outside of my own desires, feelings, wants and wishes, my 29th birthday will be centered around making a difference because I can. Because that's why I was born.

I'm asking for $29 from everyone I know -- and every penny of the money raised will go directly to fund clean water projects in developing nations. Even better, charity: water will show us exactly which projects we funded once they've been fully completed (which takes about 18 months). That means we'll be able to see the communities we've helped!

My goal is to raise $1000 by my birthday, 12.24.2012.

Please join me in making this birthday count.

"In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life." -Mumford and Sons