Hello dear viewers.
I have returned to blogging after what appears to be a while. With life, rain, arrogance and #TheGirlBehindTheFace, things have been a bit well, busy!
First things first, my darling PapaRef and MamaRef have launched a website called thegirlbehindtheface.weebly.com
We'd absolutely love if you could take a teensy peek at it and let us know what you think. It's purple, we like purple and there's a link on it called Mui's corner,which should in turn link you to the very website you're viewing now. HELLO NEW PEOPLE!
Once again social media has played a big (humongous) part in raising awareness. There was a certain group, mentioning no names because name-calling is bad, who were actually quite vicious towards my family and the way we have chosen to live our lives. I commented (through MamaRef's Facebook, no I did not frape her. PapaRef and I stayed up quite late one night to write this together, bonding times, I tell ya!) on the post myself and this is what I had to say. Because if one thing is super clear, I don't take kindly to people who upset my family. I really don't. I'd like to share what I wrote below and I think you'll get the gist of what happened.
"Though it may seem naive that people think I don't see what's been written on social media, I do. And I get screenshots over WhatsApp. And because of The Girl Behind The Face, my family and I have been trawling through Social media in search of groups who may be interested in our story. Interested...or jealous?!
Sparing no details about the fore mentioned group, I thought I'd share some thought on my life. It's dull, but I've figured you'd want to know anyway. Sharing is caring!
I am 22 and a half years old so I am actually an adult with a full time job. Yeah, I had to listen to my folks when they told me I wasn't going to sit around doing nothing all day!
This book has been written only since I became an adult with my full agreement and I'm perfectly fine with everything that's been written and I've also contributed to it myself and shared our website myself. I would think that by me contributing to the book, it means I approve of the book being written. Some think else what.
Anyways I am very grateful to be adopted because if I wasn't, I would definitely not have the life I have and I think that I would not be alive either. The HK Social Welfare department thought I was a lost cause and needed to be shielded away. My parents didn't let that happen thankfully. I think it's okay to be grateful for what you have in life. My parents haven't ever forced that upon me. Gratefulness is something I came to appreciate myself.
Being adopted is akin to being given a second chance in life. And that is something to appreciate. It's too bad that some people are too hung up on issues to embrace that.
Please take a look our Girl Behind The Face Facebook page and you might understand why I am so grateful. By the way, my mum is also pretty much an adoptee as well. I come from a family where adoption is a big pointer. You'll have to read our book to understand that.
Because some have been complete tools about our descent into the media, I'm trying to stay calm and collected. It's not easy but social media and publicity dictates that we have to act a certain way. Just saying, we only wrote our book as a result of cyberbullies making me want to commit suicide so quite frankly, I'm offended by all of the assumptions, including that we are only "posting to sell a book" or I'm "too young to understand what's going on"
We do school talks and motivational talks. We did a TEDx talk together. We got a standing ovation. Can you say you have? The purpose of our talks is to raise awareness of visible and invisible differences and cyber bullying as well as helping others. Because my parents never thought of adopting and did so anyway. That's why it's cool that mine was an unexpected adoption. It's the same with an unexpected pregnancy, you can choose to dread it or embrace it.
Please check out our website and click "like" on our Facebook page as well :-). I also run a blog of my own called The IchthyRef. Because my parents have always helped me focus on the good points in life. You won't find too many rants or such like in my little corner of CyberSpace. You'll find a regular blog about a regular woman of 22 who lives her life and just so happens to have a skin disorder called Harlequin Ichthyosis...and manages to smile and post too many food pics and selfies on Instagram."
(You're here by the way!)
Now, this made me upset and irritated. I don't feel like I have to explain my adoption. Why should I?!
Life has been pretty cool thus far. Work has been going pretty swell and I've bagged myself a full time position as opposed to being part time for the best part of the last four years. I'm still in the same company and working at The Rock Foundation has hopefully made me a better person. I work in both teaching as well as media (video-making, photos, hanging on Our Facebook page, etc). I'm grateful for the opportunities that working here has afforded me. Initially I was reluctant about working in special needs but my parents, having had a bit of a sorry time in secondary school, made me get off my backside and made me volunteer. I begrudgingly did so. And I made it into full time...THANKS MUMMY AND DADDY !(yes I still call my parents that...cuteness!)
I also feel like my body is being super good to me right now. After a bit of a saga with my blood test results, I now take vitamin D supplements as well as blood boosters as well as my neotigason. Now mix those together and you have a pretty potent combination if you ain't got ichthyosis. The neotigason is essentially vitamin A. I don't get enough of it. And it makes my skin growth slow down a bit and it's definitely easier to control my bath as the scales don't grow quite so rapidly. The vitamin D is doing me good as well. Builds up my immunity and I swear I've grown a bit more and my hair is literally growing faster and thicker, or maybe that's due to my diet....I'll have to check with my amazing doctor about that!
Speaking of which, I've switched my eating habits slightly and I think that's really helped with my energy levels and skin. Basically, I'm trying to eat more "clean" and by that, as little crap as possible. I've cut out a large amount of carbs as quite frankly, they wear me out. So that's rice out, pasta still in, potatoes and bread are 50/50. I've also found that cutting lactose out more has helped in that I feel less bloated and gunky. But fear not, I have switched to nut and soy milks to get my calcium and oh my god, Kale Chips, light of my life, those sweet things are what I call heaven. Though of course my darling colleague thought they were vile. I can tell he doesn't do wacky health food like I do! Basically, cutting out a large chunk of processed food has really helped. I tried the Paleo thing, it works to an extent but then while I try to follow it, I still throw in the extra carbs if I need it. I'm not super strict about diets but I do care whether they make you feel at least a little bit better and look it too!
I also booked myself in for a deep tissue massage the other day. Yeah, I needed a tiny woman pummeling me! She was teeny! But pretty volatile with her massage strokes. The grunting on her part were hilarious. That being said, she managed to rid a lot of tension in my body which obviously worked because some dear lady at work commented on how relaxed and good I looked. Not sure if it was my outfit or if she meant my tension, but I appreciated the gesture! I can see why people go for sport massage. Deep tissue and sports massages are great and it's always nice to treat yourself to some pain for 45 minutes on a Sunday!
I'm a bit knackered now but I'll write another post on wrapping up the rugby refereeing season soon. By the way, a lovely article was written about me by Girl Talk HQ. I loved it, I did, but I need to reiterate I'm a rugby referee, not a soccer one! And as my man Nigel Owens has said before, "this is not soccer!" God, I love his beautiful Welsh accent, makes the hills come alive! Okay I think it's been a long day, I better get to sleep before sounding like a crazy lunatic!
Mui xxx
