Behind the Scenes: My good friend Jessica Spencer-Gardner introduced me to the amazing Dana Adamson. Jess interviewed her for an interview about facing fear and challenges and lucky for me Jess knew that Dana would be a sensational guest for Who Is Your Momma! Jess was right!
Dana comes to us with a wealth of knowledge, a deep faith, and love for her amazing family. Right off the bat, Dana set the tone by explaining that Jesus is the bedrock of her family’s life and that she wanted to make faith an active part of every day. She and her husband, Chris, certainly did that because in the more recent years when Dana was diagnosed with cancer all three of her adult children came directly to her house to pray together. For a parent to see her children living out lessons she focused on so much, must be so gratifying.
When we talked about what you did as a parent that helped her children, one of her responses was that she and Chris disciplined early in life because she said she, “we wanted them to know we meant what we said.” This resonated with me because my parents were the same way and Dana and my parents both say that disciplining young children did result in middle and high schoolers who knew the expectations and therefore required a little less discipline in the later years.
Dana always felt her children would be successful and she was able to define success in her own terms and not in terms of money or clout. She said when she saw her young kids showing compassion for others and being empathetic then she knew they would grow up to be successful people because those traits are so important. She also saw their competitiveness when it came to family game night, which gave her comfort in knowing her kids would strive to achieve.
If she could go back in time, she would have taken more trips as a family unrelated to her kids’ sports and she would have taken more time with just her and her husband Chris. That is wonderful advice to those of us in the middle of it. The idea of missing a tournament or practices for a week might sound impossible, but hearing that from a sports star mom who lived that really struck me.
Dana talks about loving kids deep, being connected, always remember to be the parent and so many more amazing insights. She suggests parenting with the end in mind and I love that perspective. Dana is an amazing momma and it was a blast to learn from her!
