Kate sits down with her dear friend Marlene Dominguez, a first generation Dominican American, wife to Manny, mom of three curly-haired boys, and co-founder of Brave Church in Washington Heights, New York City – the neighborhood she grew up in, left for ten years to serve in Fort Worth, Texas, and was called back to plant a church in. Marlene’s story is layered, beautiful, raw, and full of the grace of a God who meets us exactly where we are. This conversation covers identity, motherhood wounds, endometriosis, postpartum anxiety, counseling, natural births, curls, cafecito y pan, and what it really means to say “this is their childhood, but it is also my motherhood”. About Marlene: Marlene Dominguez is a first generation Dominican American raised in Washington Heights, New York City. She and her husband Emmanuel co-lead Brave Church, a church plant in their home neighborhood. She is a mom of three boys, a speaker, and the creator behind the Instagram community @curlswithapromise where she has spent over ten years pointing women back to their identity in Christ through the lens of beauty, faith, and culture. In This Episode: Growing up in Washington Heights – Little Dominican Republic – and being called back to plant Brave Church Curls with a promise and the decade-long journey of embracing her natural hair and the identity story underneath it It is their childhood but it is also my motherhood, and why Marlene refuses to forget that No junior Holy Spirit, raising practical adults, not children whose entire world revolves around them Being diagnosed with endometriosis in her first month of marriage and what God spoke to her in that season Becoming a mom without a mom, the mother wound that motherhood brought to the surface Postpartum anxiety, EMDR therapy, and the therapist who told her what worked back then no longer serves her now The trust fund language she and Manny use in their marriage and why it changed everything Brave is not the absence of fear it is being a mom without a mom and doing it anyway Connect With Marlene: @curlswithapromise | Brave Church in Washington Heights Connect With Us: gathermoms.com | @gathermoms | Join our Patreon at gathermoms.com Gather Moms: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Kate Henderson: Instagram | Facebook Rebecca Bradford: Instagram | Facebook