Annaleigh, Charlie, and Lily

I have a confession.

When people ask how I met my good friend Brooke, I usually say that our husbands played Little League together and that all three of them went to high school together.

That's only somewhat true.

I mean, Pat and Joe did play ball together, and Pat, Joe, and Brooke did graduate in 1996, 1997, and 1998 respectively from the same school.

However, I didn't meet Brooke until 2005... although I had "known" her for over a year before.

See, Brooke and I were both on the same message board on theknot.com - a board for newlyweds. We, along with many other women, formed a unique bond and found ourselves using the word "friend" to describe people whom we had never met.

Brooke, however, lived not too far from me, and after over a year of being on the boards, we decided to meet for dinner.

And the rest is history.

Our friendship grew, and our husbands were thrown into the mix too. We'd have dinner at each other's houses, go out together, or have some much-needed girl time getting ice cream, pedicures, seeing movies, etc.

Eventually, that message board on theknot morphed into a private, intimate Google board, and Brooke and I also started spending time on a cooking board. We loved exchanging recipes, going to Super Suppers, and even went to a taping of the Rachael Ray show.

Yes, I do have a point in talking about message boards and food. :)

As many of you know (because let's face it - the majority of the people who read this blog are on said cooking board!), Brooke and Joe were blessed with a triplet pregnancy, and Annaleigh, Charlie, and Lily were born on June 27, 2009, on Brooke and Joe's 6th wedding anniversary.

These three little miracles continue to grow bigger and stronger! Though they've had some setbacks, these precious babies are thriving and making their Mommy and Daddy (and their many loyal fans!) very, very proud.

Prior to the birth of their sweet babies, Brooke and Joe created a blog to document their journey from fertility treatments to a sudden birth at 25 weeks and 5 days - with a few bumps in the road in between!

Their inspiring story has made some serious headway around the world wide web, and they are inundated with people, including manys strangers, who want to help in some way. To try to help out, some of the women on the cooking board generously set up a site where people could donate to this amazing family.

Brooke and Joe are not only great friends of ours, but they are seriously one of the strongest, most amazing couples we have ever known. I'm usually not one for solicitating, but if putting the link to the donation page helps our friends even in the slightest bit, then I'd do it happily!