Sometimes You gota stand up and dust yourself off. - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sometimes You gota stand up and dust yourself off.
For those of you who are not aware, Rachel (DGF) and I had a baby last year (June '11). She was born with a short femur on her left leg, and is now at that stage in life where she wants to take off and walk, but given that her leg is 5cm too short, she can't quite get the rhythm going. We went to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, TX back in mid-June, and we were provided information for people who work with orthopedic shoes. We had a pair of shoes outfitted with a 3cm lift (recommended by the Dr.), and I put them on her for the first time this past Tues night.
It's funny how they can tell when something just ain't jiving, because she kicked and screamed and yelled when I put her shoe on. She didn't want to stand, she didn't want to do anything but sit and cry. I have to be honest, it broke my heart, because looking at the lift on the shoe, and it does look very awkward. I finally took the shoe off, and she calmed down and began using a little walker to move about. Yesterday, I took Elizabeth the the mall and put regular shoes on her (she cried again with the orthopedic shoes so I took them off). She walked around half the mall before getting tired and reaching up to me to carry her. Oh, as she walks, she compensates the height difference by tiptoeing with her left foot. As we were leaving the mall, I saw a little boy sitting on a wheel chair being pushed by another little boy; and as they passed me by, I could not help but notice that the boy on the wheelchair had some type of condition with his legs, which I know will not allow him to walk at all in life. I could hear the boys talking, and noted that were really into talking about a movie.
I put Elizabeth into her car seat and sat there in the car a bit thinking how selfish I am. Elizabeth is able to move around on her own. In time she will get adjusted to her shoes, and the Dr. gave us a good prognosis for correcting the shortness of the femur. I also thought about how my parents will never get to see her and how wonderful she is. My ex-wife continues to feed ideas into my parent's heads, and finally after six months of trying to make peace with them, we had massive argument which ended with my mom yelling at me why she ever had me in the first place, and then said it was best that we cut off all ties with each other. I walked out and have not been back since. They changed the locks to the door and I hear they even changed their cell phone numbers. After not speaking to me for six months, I approached them this past Christmas with an olive branch. I had a very traumatic experience event at work on Christmas Eve, which left me....in an awkward state of mind.
The peace lasted this long, and they just began attacking me when I took my son to visit them one night. They refused to meet Rachel, and had also told me that they were not ready to see Elizabeth. Well, after this latest argument, I seriously doubt things will change. As for my ex, well, she continues hitting them up for favors ranging from money to baby sitting services. She tried once again to put things into my daughter Charlie's head (Karla stopped talking to me June 27th of last year, and started talking to me on May 15th of this year), but she got smart and called me about it. I told her my side of the story, and she seemed content with the answer and changed the subject by asking about Elizabeth. Oh, and she continues to talk about our 2016 trip back to WDW.
Despite all of this, I owe a lot to my older brother and Sister and their families for being there for us in our time of need. My aunts have also welcomed us in with open arms, as have my close friends; to which I will forever be in their debt. As for my parents, well, I will not make any attempts to contact them. They know how to reach me, and can do so if they ever want their son and new granddaughter.
As for Elizabeth. I talked to Rae last night about how bad I felt for the baby, and I did shed a few tears; maybe from frustration of the stress, maybe out of compassion for Elizabeth. Who knows. What I do know, is Rae needs me now. My three kids need me now; so here I am, getting up and dusting myself so that I can keep moving forward. Life is good compared to others I have encountered at work. Maybe I'm just being a bit selfish or ridiculous. I apologize, I guess I just needed to get stuff off my chest.
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It's good to get stuff off your chest! There are a lot of things that can be done for the baby, but she needs to learn to adjust too. When my kids were little I babysat for and they were friends with a little girl with neurofibromatosis. She didn't have any of the tumors on the outside. They were all on the inside and she had a small limp because one of her legs was shorter than the other. She used to skip all the time and smile and sing and hum. When other kids asked her why she skipped all the time she told them it was because it made her "happy to walk that way". The 'down side' was that was how they diagnosed her - getting her limp checked out. The 'up side' she had the best disposition of all the kids around!! You are right when you say you have to look at what is good in your life!
I don't think you're being selfish or ridiculous Carlos, you're being human. I'm sorry you're still having family troubles and to you. And be proud of yourself - not everyone picks themselves up, dusts themselves off and continues on. Some people stay and wallow in their misery.
I don't think you're being selfish or ridiculous Carlos, you're being human. I'm sorry you're still having family troubles and to you. And be proud of yourself - not everyone picks themselves up, dusts themselves off and continues on. Some people stay and wallow in their misery.
Not sure if you are aware of the Shriners Hospitals for Children. They provide phenomenal treatment/care for children free of charge! My son was treated for his flat feet during his senior year and avoided the extensive surgery my foot doctor wanted him to have. When I was in college, I used to visit their location in Springfield, MA with my Shrine Clown friends and I saw kids in there that were in the process of having bones lengthened by several inches. All of them had huge smiles on their faces. It is an amazing place with top-notch doctors! Anyway, you might want to check them out when you are ready. I'm not sure if you need a Shriner's signature on any of the applications anymore, but if you do, I know my dad would happily sign them for you!
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Not sure if you are aware of the Shriners Hospitals for Children. They provide phenomenal treatment/care for children free of charge! My son was treated for his flat feet during his senior year and avoided the extensive surgery my foot doctor wanted him to have. When I was in college, I used to visit their location in Springfield, MA with my Shrine Clown friends and I saw kids in there that were in the process of having bones lengthened by several inches. All of them had huge smiles on their faces. It is an amazing place with top-notch doctors! Anyway, you might want to check them out when you are ready. I'm not sure if you need a Shriner's signature on any of the applications anymore, but if you do, I know my dad would happily sign them for you!
I was going to recommend Shriner's Hospitals!! DD Samantha was a patient there from about a year after her injury until she was 21. The usual age is 18, but they make an exception for spinal cord injured patients. Her DH was also a patient there, after his SCI, but they were a different hospitals. Both had wonderful experiences.
We met plenty of kids with Ilizarov treatments. I was always impressed with what could be done for them!
Shriner's is free, and they even pay for a parent to stay with the child. We met kids from all over the world, some who were there for a year or more to make sure they were as perfectly healthy as possible before they went home (one boy had fallen out of a palm tree, broken his back, was paralyzed, and laid in bed for over 4 years while his village on some little tiny island somewhere tried to raise the money to pay for gas for the ONE vehicle the village had, to get to the largest city around - then he and his mom came to Chicago for treatment, she left a 4 week old breastfeeding baby for over a year!!)
The days that I used to start feeling sorry for myself and my DD, I almost always had revelations like yours: those little boys were, to me, the world's way of slapping you upside the head and saying "Hey, it could be worse. Now, get on with living and teaching that baby girl how to be the best she can be."
Remember, first she's your's and Rae's DD, then she's a child of the world, and very far down on the list, she's a baby with one leg shorter than the other - it's important to deal with, but it does NOT define her!!
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to you. And be proud of yourself - not everyone picks themselves up, dusts themselves off and continues on. Some people stay and wallow in their misery.
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