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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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DH's daughter from his first marriage is 35. She has not had an easy life, but a lot of it is her own choices. One of her choices almost cost me my marriage: 9 years ago, she came to us, jobless, homeless and pregnant with a baby she didn't want. She wanted us to adopt this baby and that caused the biggest fight we've ever had. I seriously contemplated divorce, as did DH (he just told me recently he had thought of it).
The funny part is that it's ME that wanted to adopt her baby, and DH who said "No way, not under any circumstances. No." His reasoning made sense, and his DD's statements since the baby's birth confirm his thoughts. He said "she'll never let us parent him if she's anywhere in the area. She won't let us be his parents and her just be his sister. I have to pick the child I know and already love (even though it's an adult child) over the child I don't know that hasn't been born, even though I love him already"
He was correct. It was for the best that we didn't take the baby. It killed us a little inside, but it was the best thing for that baby. He's in a home with parents who wanted him, not parents who felt they had to take him. They were lucky enough to adopt another boy, just 5 months before they adopted him, so he has a brother very close in age to him. Here he would have been loved, but it wouldn't be the same.
She's always said "my son", "my baby", "MINE". She gave him up for adoption at birth! He's NOT hers. I keep trying to tell her that. I wish she'd had a closed adoption, but no, it's only partially closed. SHE doesn't know who the parents are. They know who she is. 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!"
It makes me so upset: he is NOT her boy. She gave him away. His PARENTS are the ones who were there for the illnesses, the teething, the toilet training, the first day of school, the award for soccer that he has in one of the photos (and as a little note to any of the parents of adopted children with similar agreements: do NOT send a photo of your child in a team shirt from a place with their name on it - I was able to find the YMCA they frequent and the child is on a team at in seconds. I know what town they live in, and what area of town they are near/from. I won't do anything with that info, I won't even tell DH. But, I know my step-daughter isn't stupid. She's an idiot, but she's not stupid.)
Telling her he's not hers anymore does no good. I've tried to tell her that. She just can't accept it. When she speaks of him to others, she sometimes says things that make it sound as if she's involved in his life.
I'm just so frustrated!!!
Honestly Teresa, it's none of your business. I cannot imagine giving up a child, but have worked with mothers that have and I don't think her behavior is that unusual.
i can't speak to whether her behavior is good or bad, but your point about posting photos and being able to locate the child is important for every parent! i am constantly amazed at what information parents post on the internet.
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The adoption agency shouldn't have passed on the picture with the team shirt. They should have known better and returned it to the parents.
And I just think you're going to have to try to get over this behavior of hers. It won't stop. She still thinks of him as her and probably always will. I'm sorry about that.
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.
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I'm adopted and even though I have no desire or plans to find my birth mother, I hope she still thinks of me as her child. I have nothing but love for her and her selflessness in giving me up to be raised in a wonderful family.
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.
I am also an adoptive parent, as well as an adoption professional, and agree completely with Joanne. I would also caution against using language like "she gave him away." She actually made an adoption plan - something that was selfless, difficult, and in the best interests of that little boy. She should be able to take pride in how he's doing, since she did have some part in it. She isn't doing the hard part, the day to day parenting, but I'm sure this little boy wouldmlove to know his birthmother is proud of him.
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.
I wonder if sharing the photos (though I don't think she should put them on Facebook without permission) and sharing in his successes is her way of reminding herself that she made the right decision.
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