Happy Birthday Jupes!

July 29th is a holiday in my home. Because it's my best friend's birthday.

'Best friend' is a term thrown around a lot. I know teenage girls with 14 best friends. Which is fine, I love friendship. It's one of the best parts of life.

But all my life, I dreamed of having a 'best friend'. Someone who would be there for you, no matter what. Someone who understood you, better than you understood yourself. Someone you enjoyed being with, honestly more than just about anyone else on the planet. Someone who would challenge you, speak truth to you, and never let you get away with anything.

My best friend is all of this, and on top of that, a really great guy.

He loves the LORD, he encourages me in my faith. He's smarter than me. I'd trust him with my life (and have). He's a great father, a great husband, a great son and just someone I all around respect.

The word I've always used to describe him is 'fine'. He's just a really fine man. Which is not a term you hear too often these days.

I'll never forget coming home from a ministry trip to Egypt and realized I had no American money to call someone to pick me up. As I argued with a woman in an airport store, begging her to give me change for a pay phone...there I saw my best friend, his wife and son...they had come to the airport to surprise me.

I remember when I went in for surgery a few years ago, it was my best friend who took me to the hospital. He was the last one I saw before they knocked me out and the first one I saw when I woke up.

On my 30th birthday, I asked people not to buy me gifts. So, instead my best friend wrote me a song. It was a song about our friendship. It still brings me to tears when I listen to it.

Yeah we've been through a lot together. I was privileged to be in his wedding. I was there with him when his first first two kids were born. While his poor wife was still knocked out from the anesthesia from an emergency c-section, I got to be with him in the nursery as he held his son for the first time.

He is the brother I never had.

Through heartache and celebration. He's always my first call.

I love him dearly and am so glad that on this day...a long, long time ago, God brought him into this world.


I love you Jupes!

My Latest Video

Is Israel An Apartheid State? from maozisrael on Vimeo.

My Latest Video

What I did on my summer vacation

1) got to see my oldest friend in the world, Kelly, get married! Was the emcee at her reception! Can't beat a Scottish wedding with kilts and bagpipes!

2) fell off a 4wheeler in Texas and survived!

3) saw my 13 year old stud nephew play baseball

4) went to a Tigers game in Detroit and a Rangers game in Dallas

5) got to meet my best friend's new baby boy, Julius!

6) swimming, watergun fights, Firewheel, Tae kaon doe and watching Star Wars with Ethan and Addy (while eating Popcorn Papa)

7) went to a great concert....in my best friend's living room!

8) beating Mama Jupy in our Scrabble tournament

9) hanging with my parents, sisters, grandma, and cousin in Detroit.

10) Buddys and Little Caesars pizza, Olgas, and Vernors. Love that Detroit food!