Whenever Jonesie, Ny and I are together and we meet someone new, the first question we are usually asked is “How did you all meet?” and “What gave you the idea to create Blogalicious?” The truth is that we started off as friends who met in college (Jonesie and I) and then law school (Ny). After graduation, real life quickly set in and we found ourselves consulting each other daily – even multiple times a day – on issues relating to marriage and motherhood. The questions we bombarded each other with over email ranged from: Am I making enough milk? How did you find your nanny? When on earth do you guys have time to fit in Date Night? to What’s your favorite brand of diapers? Are Gymboree classes really worth the money? And so on and so on. Then, one day I came across this thing called a “blog.” I loved that it was an interactive and fun way to share information with friends and before we knew it, Mamalaw was born.

The blog has really been evidence of the powerful partnership that is friendship. We counsel, support and lean on each other here for all that life throws our way. And…it serves as a launching pad for other adventures, namely Blogalicious. Hardly a day goes by without someone wondering how we managed to plan and host a conference, while working and raising families. The answer is simple: we had a partnership. I’m sure any one of us would say that we would not have been able to pull anything off (except for our hair) had we been doing it alone. The beauty of our partnership is that there are three sets of shoulders to carry the load; three great minds that come up with all sorts of crazy ideas; three sets of eyes to go over everything; but most of all three good hearts that dream big. It’s the power of that partnership that fueled Blogalicious 2009 and that is fueling the great projects that are to come.

There is one other partnership that I cannot neglect to acknowledge. If you attended the conference in October, then you got to see first hand the most important partners in our lives: our husbands. As Jonesie said, we really and truly would never have been able to juggle it all without having fantastic life partners holding down the homefront. Whether it was putting up with our myriad late-night conference calls, taking care of the kids so Mommy could go to a “meeting,” or understanding that mom was preoccupied and that’s why we were having spaghetti again for dinner, our hubbies weathered the storm and gave us tremendous support. It’s the power of that partnership that fuels our spirits and inspires our kids.

Take a moment to reflect on all of your major accomplishments. I’m willing to bet that you didn’t achieve those on your own. Was a study partner involved? A mentor? An editor? Somewhere, some kind of partnership was at play.

A perfect example of a powerful partnership is one spearheaded three years ago by Willa Shalit and her company Fair Winds Trading. It’s called “Path to Peace” and it developed an American market for Rwandan women’s crafts. It creates trade partnerships with artisans in recovering regions to bring the power of change to Rwanda and Indonesia. Shalit believes that women helping each other can change how Rwanda rebuilds its society, empowers women and sustains economic development beyond traditional development assistance. Earning, on average, nearly 14 times the national per capita income, the women are now able to feed their families and send their children to school. Through the Path to Peace project, the wonderful women of Rwanda fashion one-of-a-kind jewelry such as The O Bracelet. The bracelet, recently featured in O Magazine, is hand-made by two women–a weaver in Rwanda and a jewelry artist in New Orleans. Besides being a beautiful accessory, the message is all about partnership and the possibilities which occur when we work together.

Would you like to win your very own O Bracelet? Just leave us a comment describing a meaningful partnership in your life. A winner will be chosen on Wednesday, December 16.