JAM & ATM

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:35:00 +0000

At North Valley Baptist Church

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:07:00 +0000

I was with Pastor Trieber when we were in America. I had fun in the Sunday school class. The sermon was good.

I think Pastor Trieber is great!

Josiah's New Glasses

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:37:00 +0000

Well, here is Josiah with his bug eyes, bum teeth, and great potential. Basically, he is another Mike Ray in the making.

P.S. The glasses were a Christmas present.

Josiah's first post

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:11:00 +0000

g n b f b f jb mnbn n jn bj ngbmn nh nb josiah nhbh jhbjughgfbh

cv bgh u bnvnh v jnc n c hfhn bhj jmmmmv fvbvbvv hf bvfbvgfbn hbvc vhbf d vcdfhvb dfbv hfcd vbfghvb fv bfhd vyfvbb cg vb b b hd bn vfdbh vb gv jonyfv h bgv hv vhf h nhgv hhv vb fvh bh hvh hgn fh bbn bn bh fbgbfg bb gvbbv h bf bvb bvb bgbb bvbbwcvvgb gcfv gb vb bv cvb rvgbf vbb v bf v bvfvhd fvvh vh dhbv bvfbvhyv gh b v h hcd bvd bvhbdvbhvv b fbg v gvvbvbvvbb bbbvbbncdf bfbv n f vb v f guvvu hfvu buf tr eu tg fgd yv fhgg hh bfb gdf gf b f g vb fg bg b hn nnvnv nfg n ngn ndn nb fg bn vnv nn nn h ngbgnbngfvnfbnfbnf b n f bn fgbhnfhbdhb fhb hnb bv bvb bvbbbvbbvb fvfbvhfbhdbvhbhbhhhbggg vgbghfv cghvhvc hbbuvg hbfgbh fh bnfg1 fjbnfgj nnb bn ghkop hhioh bjig hutkj ogm nmg hjiiih njh gjhgm njkjng ng nbgnn ng gnbngj jgnng ngn nbgn b n b gjnhbu hbg nbg hhg hgju mkghfujbgtiu bgb gbj gmh bfg jnbgj bhg b hbt h n hngng hi hngnjmghng njhjjgibhmkgh jhnmgihhkbhignjhm hjnhki kiyujji iuirtjhrb jh9iyuiuggjijnmmn nbgfnbgfnhb nbh ng thbgnb gfu btg nbgn j nbnjbgu jghbgjungnnbgjubng bngb ngbnngh bfgbnfgnbnfgn bfbngh bgb nghb nfg nbhg gnnb gf bfgb gfhbg vhnn bg hbfbbhb fhbng hgb

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A Child's Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:28:00 +0000

"Help all the children to believe in You. Jesus, You are the bestest Guy. Please help Your men to be strong. I love You very much. Amen." ~Josiah's bedtime prayer (verbatim).

"Fadder [Father], Mia obey. Amen." ~Amelia's bedtime prayer (verbatim, including translation).

I'm in the Lord's Army, Yes Sir!

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:32:00 +0000

Singing during devotions aboard the ferry headed towards Korea...

Twenty minutes later...

Breakfast with Amelia

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:16:00 +0000

Happy Brithday, Daddy!

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:05:00 +0000

Following a simple, yet wonderful Father's Day, we celebrated William's 29th birthday on Monday. His last year in his twenties...yikes! =) I'm almost married to a thirty year old!!! And, I, a mere 27...well, only for less than one month =)!

William headed off to teach Monday morning, thus providing the perfect time for the kids and me to make Daddy's cake. I brought back some cake mixes from the States for birthday cakes and we had the perfect one for Daddy, deluxe chocolate =). While Amelia was still sleeping, a later morning for her, Josiah and I started the cake baking process. He enjoyed it thoroughly as anyone who gets to lick the bowl should! =) Since we are not so keen on the frosting Chinese cakes have, I also brought frosting back with us, so we lathered Daddy's cake down with some yummy cream cheese frosting. The next plan, as we did with Josiah's 3rd birthday cake, was to take it to a Chinese bakery and have them decorate the top, since I am so not gifted in that area. So, with two kids on the back of my bike and the finished cake on a plate, we headed to the closest bakery while I tried to ride VERY carefully with the cake on one hand and two little ones on the back. Miraculously, we made it and explained to them what we would like. The last time we did that, with Josiah's cake, we had two lions and a couple of trees put on the top of the cake, per Josiah's request. Nothing more, just a few decorations on top, that way we could easily scrape off the decorations and eat up the yummy cake with the frosting that we like to eat, boy are we spoiled! Well, unfortunately this time, they layered on the frosting, not only on top, but on the side as well. I am not exaggerating when I say that they put an inch of their frosting on the top of this cake! Now, one simple word to describe Chinese frosting...tasteless. And when we have cake, we want the whole gamut of sweetness, hence the reason I bring back Betty Crocker frosting =).

The story behind how we decided to put what we did on William's cake: a few weeks before William's birthday, I had asked Josiah what we should put on Daddy's cake. His immediate response was "SNAKES!" Yes, his new favorite animal is the snake...thank you, Auntie Julia! For those of you that do not know, Josiah's Auntie Julia has a snake and while we were in the States for Christmas, let's just say that Auntie Julia shared her passion for snakes with her little nephew, so that every time we web cam with Papa and Nana now, Josiah asks to see his Aunties and of course, Rica the snake! So, he wanted a snake on his daddy's cake. I told him that since he likes snakes, for his 4th birthday, he can have snakes on his cake. So, we brainstormed a bit and thought of things that Daddy likes. When I asked Josiah what is something that Daddy likes, he thought a bit and then confidently said, "Computers." Ah, a great idea. I thought then that we could have an image of a mommy with a little boy and a little girl on the computer screen and that would be perfect...just a quick note, since the frosting here is not like American frosting, taste, texture, etc., they can do AMAZING things when it comes to decorating cakes! So, the idea of us on the computer screen would not be too impossible of a task. Well, a few days later, William and I were reminiscing a bit and he mentioned a cake that Mom had made for him when he was little and he still clearly remembers it. He described it as a beach scene, with half of the cake the color of water and half of the cake the color of sand, for the beach. Mom then put a landing craft in the water and little soldiers charging the beach with a flag. Very creative, Mom!! So I thought it would be neat to TRY, my you, I said TRY to recreate that wonderful cake =)! I thought about trying to find food coloring and really do the whole thing by myself, but quickly scratched that idea when faced with the question of how do I explain food coloring. (I now know that I can go to a bakery and buy a bit from them.=)) So, after the kids and I arrived at the bakery, I TRIED to explain what I would like and TRIED to emphasize that we only wanted frosting on the top...but like I mentioned before...there was LOTS of tasteless frosting, but I think we can say mission accomplished. They graciously put the cake in a nice cake box, we handed them the equivalent of $2.50 and headed back home. We dropped the cake off and headed back out the door to meet William at a noodle place for lunch.

Chinese tradition calls for eating noodles on your birthday as a symbol of long life. So, when in China, do as the Chinese do, except for eating their frosting, okay, and a few other things, but noodles it was for lunch. We finished up a good meal and headed on a bus towards Beijing. William had said that he would like to have Mexican for his birthday meal, and since we do not have any Mexican restaurants here in our city of Changping, we knew that Beijing is where we would be on Monday evening. Well, with that in mind, we also knew that we needed to get Amelia her Japanese Encephalitis vaccination soon since they do not give that vaccine in July and August since it is a mosquito carried disease and July and August are peak mosquito season. So, knowing our schedule for the rest of June, William's birthday was really the only feasible date to go to the hospital and get Amelia's shot. I know, I know, not the best way to spend one's birthday, but when you are as wonderful of a Dad as William is, family's health above personal pleasures =).

While we were on the bus headed to Beijing, Amelia took her afternoon nap, but Josiah stayed good and awake, so once we arrived in Beijing, we were faced with the reality that Josiah would need to sleep. And being a very tall 3 year old, he isn't the easiest to carry, especially while sleeping. So, Amelia and I headed to the hospital while William and Josiah headed to a nearby hotel lobby to take a little nap.

While getting her shot, of course Amelia cried, but she was absolutely great! She didn't cry long and was more interested in her cute band aid than anything. For the rest of the evening, she would pull at her sleeve to look at the band aid =). We headed to Daddy and a sleeping big brother and waited for a few minutes until Josiah fully awoke. We then headed to Peter's Tex-Mex and enjoyed an incredible feast! That particular restaurant has a little play area for the kids, which is always a tremendous blessing! So, the kids played away and Mommy and Daddy were able to enjoy talking to each other. Needless to say, we splurged and even had an appetizer of chips and nine lay burrito dip and just plain ol' yummy entrees! I mentioned to our server that it was William's birthday, so after we finished our meal, they played Happy Birthday over the sound system and we sang Happy Birthday as they brought a huge piece of chocolate cake to William. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and still feel a bit full from that tasty meal!

We headed home, tired, happy and so very full. Since we arrived back home around 9 PM, we decided to have William's cake the next evening, thus extending his birthday =)! So on Tuesday evening, Josiah helped me put the soldiers on top of the cake and we happily sang to Daddy and scraped off a ton of frosting and enjoyed our yummy cake! =) It was a wonderful two days indeed and we trust that this will be William's most glorious year yet, Lord willing!

It's torrible!

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 14:10:00 +0000

The title of this particular blog doesn't necessarily go along with the blog itself, but Josiah said this one day a few weeks ago in reference to something he wasn't too thrilled about and I just loved it so I had to include it somehow into the blog =). He combined "terrible" and "horrible" into one word which I guess means that he was utterly displeased with the situation at the time...tough life =).

At any rate, they are both growing, growing, growing and learning a great deal. The two of them are really starting to play well together. Legos seem to be their mutual interest, with Josiah making airplanes (some pretty amazing ones that we find ourselves truly astounded that he made them on his own...perfectly symmetrical, very detailed and in my eyes, beyond what I imagine a three year old able to create!) and Amelia making houses, even if she is just stacking lego upon lego, resulting in one tall tower...it's still a house, but she'll include "tall house." With the warm weather, we are venturing out often and frequenting the local parks. There is one park in particular that has a water show at 7:30 every evening and people can run through it and that is exactly what Josiah has done the last few times we have visited. He walks away soaked, but happy. Mia, on the other hand, would rather just watch. She is so not keen on getting wet, but she does enjoy watching her brother take a "bath" as she puts it =).

As a few of you know, we planted a little garden a couple months ago. It was more of a little project for Josiah and he seems to really enjoy it. We bought a few flower seeds and some tomato seeds and one morning, Josiah and I planted away. We placed them on our balcony and watered them regularly. Josiah would literally wake up in the morning and head to the balcony to check on his plants and then would flow the questions of why they weren't growing and then oft times, he would pray that Jesus would help them grow =). Well, then finally, one day, we saw green sprouting through and our little man jumped up and down, thanking Jesus for letting them grow. It was wonderful! A little three year old, praising the Lord, what music to Mommy's ears and most definitely music to our Father's ears! As of now, the tomato plants are "TALL" as Amelia likes to describe them and there are several blooms which I understand to mean that actual tomatoes are next! THAT will be exciting for Josiah-to be able to eat what he has planted. As far as the flower seeds we planted goes, well, we must have purchased some duds because only weeds came up in one pot so out the door those went. But just this week, Josiah had his first flower bloom and how excited he was. The next morning he went to check on it and was a bit disappointed to find it closed and not yet open, but none the less, he has enjoyed watering and checking on his dear little garden. And as sisters would be, Amelia has had a few moments of being disciplined after I would find her picking the leaves off of her brother's tomato plants or digging in the dirt =). Oh how much I missed out on in not having any siblings =)! Please enjoy the pictures of our little farmer and his garden. =)

The picture of Amelia is her posing with her first flowers from a gentleman...yes, at one and a half, she has already been given flowers...of course the gentleman was her wonderful father =) and Amelia loved her pretty pink "faurs!"

We love and miss you and please know that you are in our thoughts!

The National Air Museum of China (July '06)

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 07:36:00 +0000

Dad and Josiah spent a wonderful, muggy afternoon exploring Josiah's love--airplanes. It was a surprisingly large museum including a huge underground hanger carved into a hill and crammed with every type of airplane. Outside there were even more. Josiah got to climb on some of the equipment. To make the day perfect, we came across a firetruck and a bull-dozer. It was certainly an all-boy type of day. He wore himself (and his father) out running from aircaft to aircraft and twirling aroung on the anti-aircraft guns. We returned home hot, dirty, sweaty, and exhausted. If you're wondering whether or not he was thrilled, just watch the video.

Can you find Josiah?

Attempting preschool (July '06)

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 07:33:00 +0000

We decided to let our son attend preschool a few days a week to improve his Chinese. It lasted three times before we finally decided to postpone the start to his scholastic career for another year.

July 27, 2006 Preaching to his cars

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:30:00 +0000

August 25, 2006 Amelia's first steps

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:07:00 +0000

Amelia's new sound

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:22:00 +0000

Amelia's newest helmet

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:42:00 +0000

Bouncing boy

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:22:00 +0000

Emerging from the closest

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:49:00 +0000

Oh my soul!

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 07:52:00 +0000

The title of this blog brings us to a famous line by a little man named Josiah. Allow me to explain...I was in the kitchen one afternoon while both Josiah and Amelia were in their bedroom, playing with toys, looking through books, just enjoying some quality brother-sister time, or something along those lines =). They had been in there quite some time, without any altercations, sibling squabbles or tears and then I heard Josiah's voice, "OH MY SOUL!" On the one hand, I wanted to smile at yet another example of Josiah's emulation of his dad. But on the other hand, something could be seriously wrong for him to begin using such expletives. Since Josiah said the words, I knew that he must be okay, but that meant something was wrong with Amelia. I rushed into their bedroom, which is adjacent to the kitchen and discovered two little toddlers sitting amidst piles of books. When a accessed that all appendages were still intact and that there was no blood, I surveyed the tiny tots to try to determine why my two year old son had said "OH MY SOUL." I looked down at the book that little Amelia had in her lap and found out what she did that caused her brother to react so strongly...she had torn a page of the book in half! Yes, both children were safe and sound and they had been playing together quite well, but tearing pages in books is a first degree offense around here, okay, well maybe second degree, but she received her punishment for it and now when I hear Josiah say, "OH MY SOUL!," I know that nobody is about to lose a leg or an arm, but that he is indeed startled by whatever he has just witnessed. =)

A few other things that he has said that I took note of to include in the next blog once our blog was back up and working occurred during the hours before bedtime. One was when Josiah was talking to his dad about something quite important of course, and he prefaced one of his sentences addressing his father as "Pastor Dad." =) And yet another happened when Josiah was supposed to be tucked away in bed and enjoying pleasant dreams about airplanes and trucks. William and I were in our bedroom, William working on the computer and I was finishing up some homework when we saw our door begin to open. Once the door was open, we saw a tall two year old wearing footie pajamas, holding his pillow and his immediate response was, "Uhh, Daddy, I couldn't go to sleep, uhhh, because there's ahhh snake in my room." Of course there was no snake in his room, but we both thought it was a pretty good excuse. =)

As for little Amelia, she is now beginning to say some words, but mostly Chinese words. She understands both when given a command in Chinese or English, but most of her words are in Chinese or parts of a Chinese word. For example, 'thank you' in Chinese is 'xie xie' (pronounced something like shay shay) and Amelia says 'xie.' She can say 'baba (daddy in Chinese), mama, papa (which is what Josiah calls his Papa Maricle) and ge (big brother in Chinese). She is certainly a hoot, as is her brother and we do have so much fun together, all four of us!

Before I sign out, I wanted to include one more story that I was saving up for the next time that I could blog. Amelia is past this stage in her toddlerhood, but when she was just learning to put her toys away, it made for some fun hide and go seek time. You see, William taught Amelia that when she is finished with her toys or when Mommy says that it is time to put away toys, Amelia needs to put the toys in their appropriate and designated place in their bedroom. Well, I think most of the toys did find their way into their appropriate home, but I did find one of her rattles in my utensil draw in the kitchen and the ultimate toy place, one of their blocks ended up in the toilet. Yes, that is nice and tidy little Amelia for you. =)

Things well said

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:34:00 +0000

With the many long bus journies we take to get to wherever it is that we are going, William has found that story telling is a wonderful way to keep Josiah occupied and quite honestly, entranced. He loves to listen to his daddy's stories about rabbits and eagles and a dog named Charlie and every story has a character building theme with it.

This past Sunday morning, as we were on our one and a half hour trip to church, William told Josiah about Jesus dying on the cross for us. He went into detail about Jesus being spit upon, about Him receiving 39 lashes, and about Jesus being beaten. He took extra time to explain the nails being nailed into his hands and feet trying to demonstrate with his palm and index finger. It seemed to William that Josiah was really understanding the gravity of it all. Josiah stared out the window with a very grave look on his face as his daddy continued the story. Thinking he was the master at conveying deep truths to young minds, William vividly laid out the facts. Finally, he reached the triumphant conclusion anticipating what kind of reaction Josiah would have to it all. William prodded, "Isn't that an amazing story, Son?" "Yeah, Dad," he responded very seriously while pointing his index finger into the palm of his other hand, "Mommy cuts my nails, too!"

Another Josiah moment happened this evening while we were at our mid-week prayer meeting. While I was playing the piano during the singing, William and Josiah were on the front row, singing away. Well, sometime during the singing, Josiah decided that he was going to lay down across two seats in the front row. William leaned over and instructed Josiah to sit up. Little man's response, "Daddy, I'm a dog." He obeyed though and sat up, but a minute later, he was in the same position. William once again instructed Josiah to sit up and again the response was that he was a dog. Well, this time, he sat up indeed, but was on all fours in his chair and started panting like a dog and then he barked. William was certainly not impressed with the back talking, or shall I say back barking, but he couldn't help but let a smile slip at the comment of our little canine =).

And little missy is as cute as a button and quite exhausted this past week since her Mom and Dad have been going here and going there and not letting her get her beauty rest. But she still seems to be getting more and more beautiful, regardless of how little sleep she gets. =) She loves this walking business though and wants to walk here and there and everywhere. It is hard to believe that our baby girl is one now and a toddling toddler.

And her big brother is just a month and a half away from being three!! That is hard to believe! And what a big boy he is. He knows it too. William treated us to McDonalds this evening after our prayer meeting and what a treat it was! William ordered Josiah a hamburger and I told Josiah that I would feed him his hamburger as he races back and forth from the play place to the table. Since he plays his heart out in the play place, undoubtedly his hands are everywhere in the little area. And although we have seen the employees of McDonalds mop up the play place area, we have also seen one too many little Chinese kiddos in their split pants relieve themselves anywhere in the little play area. So, the idea of Josiah touching his food after having had his hands on the floor and slide just does not settle my stomach so well. And instead of having him wash his hands each time before he handles his hamburger, I was just going to feed it to him so he could take a bite and run off and play some more. Well, the little man quite maturely told me this evening, "Mommy, I am a big boy now." Out of the mouth of babes...

Looking forward to catching you all up more real soon, until then, please keep praying for little Josiah and little Amelia =).

At long last...

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:03:00 +0000

At long last, I am sitting down to post a blog and to let you know that we are all doing well and love and miss you all so much! Ahh, how busy we have been, but I am sure that the same goes for each of you as well.

Amelia is a walking machine now and seems to really love this new method of transportation. The first thing she does after we put her shoes on before we head out the door is to stand up and walk towards the door. And when we are out and about, like in a park or walking to the bus stop, she wants to get down and hold one of Daddy's fingers in her little hand and hold onto Mommy's finger with her other hand and walk like a big girl. The ironic thing about the whole situation is that while Amelia is squirming to get down so she can walk, Josiah comes and says, "Up, please."

Speaking of the little man, he is doing great. Since I am in language school in the morning and with the nai nai (grandmother in Chinese) that watches Josiah and Amelia four days a week, Josiah is picking up Chinese faster than I am and he doesn't even have homework or dictation tests!! And he has quickly adjusted to the new routine of Mommy being gone in the morning when he wakes up. The first three mornings he cried, but for the last two days, as I walk in the door, I am greeted with, "Mommy, I didn't cry!" So things are going well on the home front and I just yearn to get home as quickly as possible so I ride my bike so fast after class so I can get back to my kids and just hug on 'em. I miss them so much while I am gone in the morning. And speaking of school, it is going well. I am so glad that I have three years of living in China and hearing Chinese under my belt already, because the teachers only speak Chinese when teaching the classes, with an occasional, "OK?" So had I just arrived in China, I would be completely overwhelmed. And although everything except learning to write the characters is pretty familiar to me, as far as the vocabulary, the review has been very beneficial. I was explaining to William yesterday that what I have already learned from being here in China for three years is like the spokes of a wheel. And although I am adding a few new spokes, the main thing that has happened since classes began is the wheel that joins the spokes is now being added so everything is joining and fitting together and making so much sense. It has also been neat to get to know my classmates, most of whom are from Kazakhstan. What an enormous world in which we live in and far too many of the people that populate this world are lost and do not know of the amazing grace of Jesus. Not being so good in geography, I had only heard of this country a few years ago when William and I were talking about Central Asia and the incredible need there is out there. He mentioned Kazakhstan and I have been able to find out a little about the country from my classmates. 15 million people live in Kazakhstan and that is 15 million I did not even know existed until a few years ago...how many more millions are out there that I have not thought about or prayed for, that Jesus knows about, cares for, loved enough to die for? What a big job we have.

Well, I know it is getting late, but it has been too long since I have sent our love, so there is much to talk about. But after this story, I better get back to studying. The last blog I posted was while William was in Jilin, well, he is back with us and we are oh so very glad. He wrote about his trip in the Maricles in China blog and he mentioned a man by the name of Tim Sobers. Mr. Sober's wife graciously sent a box with William for us to open when he got home. As William said in his blog, he flew into Beijing on Tuesday evening, so he arrived home around 9:30 PM. Although Josiah was in bed when Daddy got home, I had kept him up later than usual, knowing that William would be home soon. So, he wasn't asleep when Daddy walked in the door and not only was he excited about Daddy being home, the box Daddy was holding was also a delight for him to see. =) We went into our bedroom to open up the box and Mrs. Sober had graciously given us a few dresses for Amelia (they have two little girls themselves) and a box of cake mix. Upon seeing the cake mix, Josiah ran into the kitchen and came running back into our room with three forks, ready to eat the cake that was in the box! He saw the front of the box and saw the cake, so of course there had to be a cake in the box. =) He was only a little disappointed when we showed him the back of the box and pointed out that we need eggs and water and oil to make the cake, because then he knew he could help Mommy someday make the cake and he loves to help with the stirring whenever I prepare something to bake. He just tickles us so much. What a joy he is!!

Well...I guess this means it's time to get to studying. We certainly love and miss and love and miss and did I mention love and miss you all?!!! Well, we do!! =)

Without our Daddy...

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:30:00 +0000

Tis the little ones and me, without our beloved daddy for a few days and so far, so good. William and Bro. Nasett have traveled to Jilin, a city in northern China, to see the work that Bro. Kalapp from First Baptist Hammond started. Since William doesn't have classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, they headed out on the overnight train Sunday evening and will return Wednesday morning and William will head straight to his school to teach for the day and then we will get to see Daddy!!! In the mean time, I begin my first day of language school tomorrow, Tuesday, and I am nervous. Many of our friends have encouragingly =) told me that they cried after their first day of school because they were quite overwhelmed. So, let's see how many tears I shall shed, and I will not even have my husband to run home to to cry upon...but He will count every tear =).

We had a great Sunday yesterday. A while ago, William asked one of the members to write down the mistakes William makes concerning Chinese pronunciation, grammar and the such while teaching His Word and afterwards, both William and this member sit down and go through the mistakes and he offers William some suggestions for better pronunciation or teaches him some more about grammar. Well, after the meeting yesterday, the fellow servant came up to William and told him, "Congratulations! You didn't make any mistakes!!" Our Father is blessing!

Yesterday morning, as we were getting ready for Sunday, we had some wonderful music playing from Old Christian Radio.com and there was a violin playing. Josiah pointed out that he could hear the violin and so I asked him if he wanted to learn how to play the violin or the horn (his name for the trumpet). He cheerfully responded, "The guitar." Perhaps all three =).

We are off to go have dinner at friend's house, so I must close for now. But I shall look forward to tomorrow when I get to share a little bit more of us with you =).

PS-The picture is of our little miss, the carpenter with her measuring tape, getting ready for a diaper change.

His little sayings...

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 14:11:00 +0000

I know most of my posts are about the little man, but I must reassure you now that we indeed do love Amelia and yes, she is oh so very cute. But our active two and a half year old just has more things about which I can write about, at least for now. Amelia is walking a great deal now. She still does prefer to crawl when going from one end of the house to another, but she loves standing and trying to present a commanding presence. She is absolutely as cute as a button and still has that ear-to-ear smile that she shines so regularly. She officially has five teeth now, with one another one on top almost poking through and two more on the bottom that are not too far behind. She loves to make us laugh and seems to have such a cute, silly personality, just like her big brother =).

As for Josiah, I wanted to jot down a few things he says that just tickle our hearts:

On occasion, Josiah will want to go into a door, but the door is closed. He knows he cannot just enter it without knocking. He also knows that what he wants to hear after knocking is "Come in." So, while he is knocking on the door, we get to hear him give himself permission by calling out "Come in! Come in!"

Today, just after he had nudged Amelia, okay, well, it wasn't quite a hit, but it wasn't as soft as a nudge either, I asked him why he had done it. His response, "Because I'm a funny guy."

While Josiah was taking a bath tonight, he did something that made us laugh and William told him that he was a silly guy. Josiah said, "You're Maricle man!" =)

Sometimes when Amelia is bothering him or is touching something she shouldn't be touching, I will hear Josiah say, "Mia Maricle!!"

We are still trying to break him of his thumb-sucking habit, and sometimes I will go in and lay with him when it is time for bedtime. Well, he wants to suck his thumb, but he knows that if he does it in front of me, he will get in trouble, so he will say, "Mom, please close eyes."

I suppose he hears us telling him and Amelia often that we think they are cute, so in return, oft times he will say, "Mom, you're cute."

Sometimes he'll march up to his dad with an imaginary sword in his hand and growl, "Dad, I'm a man with a sword, and you're a bear." And then he will proceed to attack his father.

There are so many more, so I'll spread the wealth over a few days =).

Our little scholar attempts school

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:42:00 +0000

Josiah has just been plain ol' cute these past few days. He talks so much and has great stories and tells his stories which such emotion and wonderful expressions. With him being so tall and with how well he can communicate, I have to remind myself often that he is only two. The picture is of Josiah (can you tell which one he is? =)) at the preschool he attended three times. It was only three times because they said that he was too young and that we should come back when he turns three. Basically, he cried too much =). Most of the kids are three and older, so we'll try next year. The preschool setting we had in mind was an environment in which Josiah could go to twice a week for a couple of hours so that he could be completely surrounded by fluent Chinese speakers. Our Chinese isn't quite to that level, yet =). We imagined him playing with the other kids most of the time and perhaps a little bit of classroom time, for coloring or learning a few words. Well, the only playtime it turns out they have is right after they eat lunch around 11:30, when I would come to pick him up. We know this because William hung around for the few hours one day, just to see what went on and yes, Josiah cried a great deal and yes, they stayed in the classroom those entire few hours. So, all that to say that we will wait a bit and reevaluate our ideas and strategies for Josiah and Amelia learning Chinese.

About how cute Josiah has been the past few days, well, he is always cute, okay, most of the time =), I will jot down a few of his little sayings that are just cute and warm my heart, but that will be for tomorrow... =0) We love you all so very much!!

Josiah's latest experiment

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:46:00 +0000

“Boys will be boys.”

That’s how the saying goes. Well, this story involves a Lego, a little boy we all love and his little bitty nose =). It was a busy day around the Maricle house with preparing and cooking for company coming over in the afternoon and the kids had been a big help all morning by playing quietly and diligently together. Company arrived, we ate together, cleaned up after the meal in preparation for a short Chinese lesson, and all that without incident. And then, our little two year old came running from his room towards me, crying, but not hysterically yet, saying something about his nose.

“Lego in my nose, Mommy!!”

“What?! A Lego?! Which nostril?!”

“This one,” as he pointed to his left nostril.

In the panic of the moment, the only thing that came to my mind was to call Mrs. Laterza. While we do not have 911 here in China, we have someone just as reliable, our dear friend, Mrs. Laterza. She instructed me to gently put a q-tip into the other nostril to try to force him to sneeze. As I was doing that, she asked me if Josiah knew how to blow his nose. Why didn’t I think of that!!!?!! By this point, Josiah was crying hysterically and because your sinuses tend to swell when you are crying, it was constricting that Lego in his nose more, thus causing more pain which means more tears and screams!! He complied wonderfully and blew his nose right into my hand and out shot that infamous piece of Lego. It was so far in his nose that I could not see it lodged in there. After I had the Lego in my hand, my tears began to flow and Josiah was very apologetic. Later that evening, as we were putting away all the Legos, I showed him a few pieces and asked him if he wanted to put those pieces into his nose or ears. His response, “Nooooooooooo, Mommy!” =)

September 1, 2006

noreply@blogger.com (William Maricle) — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:24:00 +0000

Wow!! So hard to believe that Dad and Amelia’s birthday month is already upon us! A big month for both Dad and Amelia…Dad will turn 50 and Amelia will be one year old!! =)

Since we have company coming over tonight and I need to get dinner going, I will jump immediately into today’s little story. We headed to William’s school today to eat lunch together and then we were going to head over to the barber so both William and Josiah could get their hair cut. So, while Josiah, Amelia and I were riding on the bus, we came to the bus stop we normally get off to catch another bus that takes us to church. So, Josiah is very familiar with that stop. As we were approaching it, he said, “It’s our stop, Mommy.” And I explained that we were getting off at the next stop because we were going to meet Daddy today and that we would head to church another day. When the bus did finally stop at the one we usually get off, Josiah noticed all the people getting off at that stop and asked me, “Those people going to church, Mommy?” I told him that I wish they were. It is so very exciting to see that church and the Lord seem to consume a lot of his mind, in addition to street sweepers, garbage trucks, police cars and so on, but since church and the Lord are such an integral part of our lives, our little two year old has already picked up on it…I pray it only consumes him more and more with each year!!