As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Teresa, I'm sorry you are having this frustrating experience. I'm an adoptive mother, but I have a much different view of my child's birth parents than some of the others who have posted here. My child's birth mother did literally toss him away at birth to an orphanage. (There is more to the story but I don't want to post it here...let's just say it wasn't "out of the kindness of her heart to do what was best for him") As his parent now, I would be very upset if his birth mother tried to take credit for any of his accomplishments these days or act like she had any role in his life. Now, I feel very differently about the women who raised him to age 5 at the orphanage. I am more than happy to send them pictures and encourage them to be proud of him.
I can see where your frustration is with your SD, but if the adoptive parents agreed to this partially open adoption and know she gets pictures, then I'm sure this would make them happy - to see that she is still interested in the fact he's doing so well and proud of him. If it was supposed to be a closed adoption and she did some sort of sneaking around to find information that would be a totally different situation, but she is being given the pictures willingly by his parents.
__________________
MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
I can see the points of view the adoptive moms have posted here. I celebrate your love and openness about your children and thank you for being so willing to share.
Let me be a little clearer: She did NOT give the baby up for adoption out of concern for him. She just doesn't like kids, never wanted any, and didn't want the hassle of raising one. There were 2 reasons she didn't have an abortion; (1) She didn't have the money and (2) She didn't realize she was pregnant until it was too late to have one in either Indiana or the state she was living in at the time. The adoption was a very good decision for her to make, one I applaud completely. It's just that it was NOT a selfless act. This woman took risks while she was pregnant; refused to take her vitamins (because she said they made her sick), continued to smoke even increasing her cigarettes per day count, rode EVERY ride at WDW when she was 5.5 months pregnant, ate ONLY junk food, drank, etc. And her response when I said "You really shouldn't do that. It's not good for the baby." was to tell me she didn't care about what was good for the "brat" because "I'm not keeping it anyway, I'm giving it away." She couldn't wait for his birth and tried to induce her own labor beginning at 7 months - because she was sick of not being able to do stuff. Yes, she gave him away. She did do it legally, and the baby (now boy) is better off for it, but she still gave him away.
Huntermom: YES, it is my business. My DH and I supported her while she was pregnant, until she was about 8 months along and she decided to go be with the baby-daddy. She calls me and rants all of the time about how she's the baby's mom, and the person who adopted him isn't. She made it my business the second she brought all of this into my home, and besides that, she's been my step-daughter for over 22 years. I may not agree with a lot of what she does, I don't like her in any way, but I do love her and care what happens to her.
I think my problem with the way she words things is simple: she talks/acts as if she is his MOMMY. She's not. She is and always will be his MOTHER. His MOMMY is the one who was there for the illnesses, the first day at preschool, the first day of school, the immunizations, the hurt feelings, Trick or Treating, etc. His mommy is the person who will be there for the first crush, the first broken heart, prom, graduation, etc.
I can't believe the adoption agency passed on a photo with enough information to be able to find him. Someone really dropped the ball there. With no legal right to him, she likely doesn't have the right to post any pictures on facebook. I wonder is she has any idea how much risk she could be potentially putting him at?
Teresa, I do completely see where (and why) you are coming from. It must be very frustrating. I also wonder if you'd consider contacting the agency a out the picture that included identifying information? Seems like it would be better for that not to continue - especially if your SD is posting to FB.
I do appreciate your concern for your grandson - you are clearly reacting out of love for him. Adoption certainly can be a complicated thing....
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
It is a very complicated situation...I am adopted and yes I have met my birth mother when I was 20. It wasnt a great meeting and I havent seen her since and that was 15 years ago but I still am glad that I did it. I struggle with the fact that my own mother didnt want me even though I had a great family that did adopt me. Personally if the boy does ever meet her I think it will be good for him that she does care for him now. She may not have at the time but alot of parents who give up their kids think they can handle it and it wont bother them and then they realize that they really did love the child and it hurts them more than anything.
Pixies to everyone involved as it sounds like a difficult situation. I can't give advice on either end of the adoption aspect but you might want to contact the agency if you know which one it is and inform them about the soccer picture being passed on as it wasn't a good idea.
Teresa, I'm an adoptive Mom of two wonderful kids. Yes, they are mine, but they are also the birthparents children. I have sent photos and newspaper clippings to our agency to pass along to the birthparents so they can be proud of THEIR children. We share these children. If not for the birthparents, I wouldn't be a Mom today. I can never thank them enough for their courage and unselfishness. I would be thrilled to know that the birthparents were proud of them and still loved them enough to call them their own.
I want the kids to know that they weren't just tossed away because they were inconvenient. I want them to know that their birthmother loved them enough to do what was best for them, not her. I want them to be proud of her, too.
I don't know that I want her posting their photos to facebook, but I would appreciate knowing that she enjoyed getting the photos and they meant something to her. You might just mention to your stepdaughter that she should be careful about posting children's photos online, especially if there's something in the photo that might show perverts where to find them. But I wouldn't discourage the love she feels for her son. Someday, that boy may want to reunite with her and he will want to know that she loved him.
That is exactly how I feel. There are all kinds of mothers. I am also a mother by adoption but Ryan also has a birth mother. And I do send updates to the agency as well in the hopes that she may see them someday and know that she did the right thing and helped to create an amazing kid. If and when she sees my updates and photos, I pray that she will be proud of her son. Because while yes, he is mine, he was her's first. And it was only through great love and sacrifice that he became mine.
Pixies to everyone involved as it sounds like a difficult situation. I can't give advice on either end of the adoption aspect .
I have a nephew who was adopted my his Aunt, it is the same stuation Mother wants all the braging rights. He was little (3) when mother was not able to care for him& his sister(4) any more so my brother adopted the little girl. Sister (both neices )of the mother adopted the little boy. For years they were raised as mothers neice & nephew. Well mother decides she is going to tell them they are hers. What a confused mess.
They send photos of the baby (now boy) every so often to the adoption agency who then sends them to her.
Today, she posted on her FB: they sent her new pictures. And she posted them, all of them. AND she wrote "My boy, he's getting so big!"
... that is dangerous behavior, likely to cause this boy no small amount of hurt or upset in the next few years.
Think about it: kids as young as 12 and 13 are getting their own Facebook pages. And he's what, eight or nine already? Boys can have friends 1-2 years different in age, so in as little as one year, he might suddenly have a friend saying to him "hey, I saw your picture on facebook, and this lady who isn't your mother was saying your HERS".
Okay, it's a slim chance. But "slim" does not equate to "zero".
...
If I were you, I'd contact the adoption agency and inform them of yur DD's behavior. They should probably stop sending her photos, at least until after the boy has been told he's adopted.
Especially if, as you say, there's such easily-identifying information included in the photographs.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
[SIGPIC]Ricky, Sharon R, Richard
Linear Mode
