This comic is one from our new My Korean Husband book that will be out in Korea soon. When we first moved to Seoul, Hugh was so happy to be able to order food and loved seeing all the food menus on our fridge. Since losing weight he can’t as much delivery food, but he still keeps the menus.

안녕하세요. 마이 코리안 허즈번드의 호주 아내 니콜라, 한국 남편 순홍 (휴) 그리고 아들 율입니다. 저희가 평소에 영어로 유튜브 영상과 웹툰을 만들고 있지만, ‘마이 코리안 허즈번드’ 코믹북은 모두 한국어로 되어있어요. 그리고 올해초에 ‘마이 코리안 허즈번드 2’ 두번째 책도 출간 예정이에요. 국제커플인 저희 부부가 어떻게 문화의 차이를 극복하고 행복 하게 살아 가는지에 대한 이야기들이에요. 많은 응원 부탁드려요! 감사합니다.

저희 ‘마이코리안 허즈번드’ 코믹북이 궁금하시다면 여기를 클릭 해주세요.

SUBSCRIBE TO US ON YOUTUBE.

Going through IVF in South Korea

I have been trying to edit this video for over a year. Every time I’d look at the footage I would end up crying and all those emotions would come back. I can’t emphasis enough how emotional it is going through IVF…

I also wish I’d filmed more of what we went through but at the time I didn’t want the camera anywhere near me.

We did end up vlogging the IVF process because we wanted to document what we went through, and also share our story with others. We would meet people who didn’t know what IVF was, or people who’d heard of it but didn’t know much. Even for those that have friends going through it, it’s hard to understand what it’s really like. I hope documenting it and talking about it helps others understand. Many people are going through this all the time, but people just don’t realise it. As we said in the video, it is hard to always be explaining it to people.

We are lucky to be living in Korea. The main reason why we moved to Seoul was to do IVF. Now we have many reasons to be in Seoul, but that was the initial motivation to move. When we went through IVF the Korean government paid for half of it, and we’ve heard now that the government will pay for 70% of it! This is probably to do with Korea’s declining birth rate and they are throwing money at anything to make people have more babies. But in many other countries IVF can be extremely expensive.

Everyone has a different experience of IVF. Things may be done differently in other countries, or the drugs may not affect someone the same way they affect others. And the saddest reason for a different experience may be when people have the opposite outcome of us…

I can be pretty blunt in the video about what people shouldn’t say to couples struggling with infertility and I wasn’t sure if I was going to leave that in. I asked people in a similar situation if I should leave those bits in and they said yes. They want others to know this.

I did cut out a part where I talked about how it can be hard to maintain friendships with friends who already have kids. I totally understand how bitter some people with infertility can get and feel they have to break off those friendships. We have tried to maintain positivity and the knowledge that we will have a happy life together even if we don’t have kids. But I also don’t know what my feelings would have been several years down the track. Even now, after having Yul, I still can have anger and bitterness towards women who can easily get pregnant. I try not to spiral down with that negativity like that, but as we approach the topic of having another baby and what we will have to go through to achieve that, it’s hard not to see others easily conceive and feel bitterness. It’s hard when other couples can get pregnant by doing a loving act one time, while others struggle for years going through fertility treatments.

Yul really is a miracle baby. After the first round of IVF I really thought it would be so many more tries, but I’m so thankful I became pregnant then. We are so happy to be parents.

Already there are so many lovely comments on the video over on YouTube, thank you everyone for being so supportive.

I also have my comic series about endometriosis, infertility and IVF here. New episodes coming next year.

Yul is in a Korean Commercial!

In this video we talk about how Yul was selected to be in this commercial, the process and the actual day of filming. It was our first experience of baby commercial filming and we learned a lot! If he gets another commercial we will be more prepared!

We’ve had questions from people about how to get their baby into commercials but we can only explain our process. We aren’t deliberately signed with an agency but we have agencies contact us and work on our behalf. They take a cut of the payment but we don’t sign exclusive contracts with them. Hugh also now works for a management company who can negotiate for us next time. The most we’ve done is have an Instagram account for Yul (which is here). This Instagram account is mostly for people who follow us and want to see more of him, as well as for family around the world, but is also a good place to showcase his professional photos.

All opportunities have been through the Instagram account, and there have been a bunch we have said no to. Although we knew he’d be good on camera we didn’t want to shop him around to auditions and become stage parents. We wait for opportunities to come to us and then decide which ones to take. There are talent agency sites in Korea where people can upload a photo of their baby and apparently companies or agencies can look through the photos and select what babies they like. But these sites seem to have pages and pages of baby photos and often have fees, which to me seems like a rip off. I think people working for agencies that are finding babies and kids for commercials are usually on Instagram looking. So a good Instagram account seems vital, at least in our experience.

The other things to consider is whether your child is good around a lot of people. Yul is very comfortable with lots of people and did a good job, but it will be overwhelming for most babies. A baby needs to be very easygoing and comfortable in unusual situations, otherwise it will be stressful for them. Your child’s comfort and security should be the most important, so it’s not good to put them into a situation they don’t enjoy, even if you are certain they have star potential. Getting a baby to smile at home is very different to getting your baby to smile in front of a huge camera and lots of people.

Another thing I didn’t get to mention in the video is that even though it’s a baby commercial, it doesn’t mean the space will be set up well for babies. We know for next time to bring mats and bedding and many many toys. And you may be in the same waiting room as the other families! A sense of competitiveness is just going to make it stressful, so being nice to other parents and kids is the best option. It was originally only going to be one baby in the commercial, but they couldn’t decide between Yul and the little girl. Her parents were lovely and we were really happy that she got to be in that commercial too. We all bonded on the day of filming and keep in contact. But, there will also be stage mothers/fathers around as well so you may have to brush off any rudeness of competitiveness from those types.

If you have any more questions please ask them here to over on YouTube!