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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
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I'm sorry this happened to your family. I don't understand people to be honest. My DD is 9 & when she doesn't understand a situation she has a bad habit of starring. I'm not shy about it & tell her to stop starring otherwise people are going to stare at US since I am a single mom. Has anyone really done this....no but it makes her realize she doesn't want people looking at us trying to figure out our situation.
My DD is actually really good about "out of the norm" relationships & families. I remember one time a few years back she was starring at 2 women kissing & she looked at me & said "umm Mommy? Why are they kissing?" I replied, "people kiss when they love each other or care for one another & it doesn't matter if it's 2 ladies, 2 guys, or people from Mars" from that point on it didn't phase her because I was comfortable about it.
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Mess with my children, and the lion comes out. I would have asked for another table and made rude comments back them as I walked to my new table. He is your child no matter what.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Disney Dream'n
I can't believe in the yr 2013 people are that confused to see a multi-racial family. Have these women lived under a rock all their lives.
I can't believe how rude those women were. And why are they concerning themselves with what your family does. I have 3 adopted cousins from South Korea, and not once did it ever cross my mind that it wasn't anything but normal. I probably would have said something to those women.
Personally,I would have used the "embarrass them" tactic. People like that are basically stupid. I would have said something,then turned it into a joke,with them being the butt of the joke. Laughing at someones stupidity is more effective,IMO, you'll never be able to educate such ignorant people,why try?
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What a terrible situation especially for your DS on his birthday. I would have wanted to go over and throw something at them. What could have been done - walk over and nicely say "I see that you are curious about us so let me explain, we adopted our wonderful son - who was born in Korea when he was an infant. We are here to celebrate his birthday and hope that you can refrain from other rude remarks that embarass him. Thank you and have a good evening!"
I definitely would have either said something or had the restaurant move us by asking loudly to be moved away from the drunk obnoxious ladies. I feel bad for your son. Maybe do a "do over" birthday dinner somewhere else. I was asked a few times if my dd was adopted because she is mixed race but trust me after 38 hours of labor I know she is all mine. A friend who adopted a beautiful little girl from China was once asked how much she cost like she was purchased at Walmart?!?!? People can be very hurtful.
Well as an adopted kid with white blonde hair and fair skin in a family of dark brown
hair and olive skin I do understand stares and people talking about your
"sad situation". My older sister and I were both adopted (she was from a totally different family).
I once heard an older lady tell my mother what a saint
she was to take in someone else's child. That lady was my grandmother.
I'd known I was adopted since I was little and yes there were times it was more
noticeable then others. Sometimes you have to tell those witches that it's great to
be a family no matter the color and that you were blessed with wonderful kids.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by krisk11
A friend who adopted a beautiful little girl from China was once asked how much she cost like she was purchased at Walmart?!?!? People can be very hurtful.
That's just wrong on so many levels! It is ignorance like this that ticks me off. Knowing me, I would have given this person a barrage of "street lingo" which I know would have made her get her head out of a certain bodily orifice.
I am so sorry to hear what you and your family went through. My two sons are adopted. The oldest has birth parentage from the Philapenes and looks darker skinned than my husband and I. There was a lady, from a nearby church we would visit regularly, who came up to us after we had adopted and started to ask a question but seemed to have trouble wording it. I suspected what she want to ask so I didn't give her any help and she finally came out with, Where was he born?--- In America. She stammered and stuttered some more, asking some more questions which I answered vaguely and I didn't help her one bit. She finally came out with the REAL question, Is he black? Me ,acting so innocently, said "Oh no !! He part Filpino. I honestly try to give people the benefit of not realizing what they are saying or asking BUT those "ladies" I can't give any grace to them. That is OUT AND OUT RUDE!! I think I would have wanted to go up to them in my sweetest, syrupiest and sarcastic voice and said, "I want to Thank you SO MUCH for making what was to be his birthday dinner a TRULY rotten time and just for your info-- IT IS NOT OF YOUR BUSINESS!!"
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Thanks everyone. This weekend I finally had the chance to bring up the subject with DS and ask him what we should do next time. He told me that he thought that he would do the same thing again should it ever happen. He said that he didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing the real story. And, as my DDad often says, "you just can't train the stupid out of some people, so why bother?"
Had they just come up to me and asked, I would have gladly discussed the adoption. It's not like it hasn't happened to us about a 100 times before. Often, people have similar adoption stories in their families and they like knowing that there are others out there like them. But, it's hard to remain pleasant when people are stupid enough to ask things like, "how much did he cost?", "what if his real parents want him back?, "do you have to feed him anything special?", and my all time favorite, asked when my DD was all of 4 months old, "does she speak English?"
I don't know if I'll be able to control myself again if this happens, but for DS's sake I'll try.
Wow Joanne -- just wow. I'm aware that this happens all the time but it still just blows me away. I'm so sorry you, your DS and your family had to deal with it. I think I wouldn't have been able to NOT go off on them but I think that you did the right thing for his sake -- especially now that you've talked with him.
Like I said...wow....just wow.
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I probably would have done what you did, but what I would have wanted to do is to say, loudly, "What do you think about those women at the next table? Do you think they're sisters? They don't look alike, but they were obviously all raised without manners or concern for others."
This! Perfect response, Laurie!
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I am sorry that you all had to deal with such a callous situation. I would have said something. I love all the comments others have mentioned here already.
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I can't believe how rude those women were. And why are they concerning themselves with what your family does. I have 3 adopted cousins from South Korea, and not once did it ever cross my mind that it wasn't anything but normal. I probably would have said something to those women.
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