Single and Fabulous, Exclamation Mark

In one of my favorite SATC episodes Carrie has a photo shoot with the title "Single and Fabulous". She ends up going out much too late the night before, sleeping through the shoot, and shows up late as an absolute mess. It's not until the magazine is published with her face plastered on the front that she realizes it's Single and Fabulous question mark instead of Single and Fabulous exclamation mark. One little symbol makes a world of difference, and can make or break the self-esteem.
This is a blog to celebrate really fabulous single women - exclamation mark!

My church has baby dedications from time to time. It's not exactly a baptism or specific ceremony, but it gives young parents a chance to stand up in front of the congregation with their babies - and usually a few adorable toddlers vying for attention - and proclaim their intentions to raise the child to glorify God to the best of their abilities. I think it also gives the church the opportunity to come alongside and support new parents.
Yesterday we had such a dedication. I don't know many people other than students at this church and I certainly didn't know this woman, but for the first time I can remember, a single mom stood up there by herself and dedicated her baby. Sidenote that this little boy had the biggest, most adorable dark eyes, round cheeks and curly hair. This particular service stood out to me, not only because I think it would take guts to stand infront of a big church by yourself, but also because this church was so supportive of a single mom - something I don't see a whole lot. They didn't explain why the baby and mom had different last names and I didn't expect them to, but this was the second woman I had met this last week that was clearly proud to be a single mother. I find this relevant because I think I want to adopt someday. And I will expect some static from people who believe that children need a mother and father figure in their lives - and I'm sure they have a point. But a key word here is figure, isn't it? Wouldn't it help to have a man around that you respect that your kid could also look up to? Isn't that what friends and family are for? Isn't it still better for that child to be in a loving home - one parent or two?
I'm clearly not planning this for years and years - I don't even know what I'm doing with my own life in four months. It's just something bouncing around in my mind lately. And I get excited to see other women living out my dreams.

I met another woman in the drive-through on Friday who is a professor at two colleges in town. She's a single mom who teaches English (and maybe Education) who is so gosh-darn passionate about social justice. She comes through all the time, but I loved her as soon as she started talking about justice and how excited her freshmen were becoming about their projects. I asked her what her favorite part of teaching was and she told me it's when the class as a whole can get excited about something and everyone's sharing and talking and pretty soon the hour is over and no one even realized the time dissappeared. Her class is currently talking about September 11 and how there's more to the story than terrorism. Maybe it's been a response to years and years of oppression since the crusades. I'm really not going to get into that since all I can offer is a relay of what she told me through a drive through window, but I respected her strength and passion.

You can probably expect similar posts about single, fabulous activist women after the global forum in two weeks. I'm so excited to network and meet these people and hear their stories.