Our Voice / May 2014 13
Our Voice: OK Adair, I think we’ve known each other for about 11 years and I am sort of aware of many of the roles you play. The list is long so let’s begin first by asking how do you keep everything straight?
Adair: One day at a time, A good calendar, Time management, Supportive family, Faith as the shield I lean on.
Our Voice: So early last year you “retired” but of course that didn’t mean you just laid back. Instead you started your own publishing company. What made you decide to start another career after teaching?
Adair: I’ve always been a writer…I just didn’t know that I was any good at it until I was a teenager. I used to just write poetry and shared it with others and they actually said it was good so I started writing other things. While in college others began coming to me to help with their “word flow” so their papers would present with clarity. I also used to write about my feelings…It was my way of releasing a lot of pain that I was in during my elementary and secondary years. It was like giving volume to my silenced voice.
My writing continued throughout my life --- as a vehicle to say what I was feeling or thinking…I used in professionally and personally to express myself. Professionally I used it to create programs for teens who were “at-risk,” write presentations for conferences and scholarly articles. When I decided to write my first book in 2012 I felt as though I was living in my purpose…doing what I was meant to do at that moment…I knew that I needed more time to do more…It was all I thought about during the last few months of being an educator…all I wanted to do was write…Sooooooo, after I retired I knew that I just needed to learn the “business” part of being a publisher and author….I guess this is what my life was supposed to be all along….
Our Voice: Being a mother, wife, and business woman you are definitely proving to the world that you can have it all. What are the main ingredients to a successful woman and doing it all?
Adair: Leaning on the shields of Grace, Mercy and Faith. Knowing that you are already “so much” but you are destined to be “so much more” so you have to “work a dream to live a dream.” Remembering that dreams don’t come with a warranty or guarantee so you have to keep it relevant. Knowing that your Faith is Stronger than your Pain so you keep pushing through that pain because that’s the only way that you are going to “have it all.” Achieving a healthy balance between it all. Never forgetting to live in your purpose.
Our Voice: I know I rattled off difference parts in your life that you play, but for you what do you consider your defining role.
Adair: Oh my! Of course that would be “A MOM!!!!” I mean, God chose ME to be the mom of these 5 children! They really belong to him but he gave them to me to watch over and take care of while they are here on earth so how could I not give them all of me? Everything else pales in comparison…My children define me because they are God’s children and God has already defined this role for me.
Our Voice: What has been the one life experience that you feel has prepared you for what you have achieved thus far.
Adair: Actually it was my mom’s death….Her death made everything around me become a reality and I know that I knew better I was able to “do better.” I wrote quite a bit about it in my book ---I grew up with an alcoholic, abusive mother in economic poverty amidst emotional and sexual abuse. But I never felt unloved --- she just didn’t know how to take care of me because she was lost in her purpose. As a child you don’t understand all of this – you just live through it. But once she died, many of the lies of the life we were living died along with her and I began to live in the true reality of what my world was and could be. I could dream and not have to worry about that life deferring my dream….It was a pivotal time in my life that made me better, stronger and ready to travel down the path that was paved for me…Although the death of mom was devastating it has proven to be the greatest loss but the greatest gain in my life…