The Invisible Girls: A Memoir By: Sara Thebarge Book Review

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About the book:
Twenty-seven-year-old Sarah Thebarge had it all – a loving boyfriend, an Ivy League degree, and a successful career – when her life was derailed by an unthinkable diagnosis: aggressive breast cancer. After surviving the grueling treatments – though just barely – Sarah moved to Portland, Oregon to start over. There, a chance encounter with an exhausted African mother and her daughters transformed her life again.

A Somali refugee whose husband had left her, Hadhi was struggling to raise five young daughters, half a world a way from her war-torn homeland. Alone in a strange country, Hadhi and the girls were on the brink of starvation in their own home, “invisible” to their neighbors and to the world. As Sarah helped Hadhi and the girls navigate American life, her outreach to the family became a source of courage and a lifeline for herself.

Poignant, at times shattering, Sarah Thebarge’s riveting memoir invites readers to engage in her story of finding connection, love, and redemption in the most unexpected places

Take a look at this video from Sara Thebarge.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfLc4kYlPaQ]

About the author – Sara TheBarge:

Sarah Thebarge is a speaker and author who grew up as a pastor’s kid in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She earned a masters degree in Medical Science from Yale School of Medicine and was studying Journalism at Columbia University when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 27. Her writing has appeared in Just Between Us, Relevant and Christianity Today. Her blog was featured on MSNBC.com. She has spoken at Donald Miller’s Storyline conference, women’s retreats, and other venues. She was voted one of 40 Women Under 40 who are challenging taboos of the Christian faith.

Sarah’s writing for Christianity Today earned her first prize from the Evangelical Press Association in 2012. Her first book, The Invisible Girls, will be released by Jericho Books in April of 2013. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

Important links:
For more information on Sara Thebarge and her book The Invisible Girls: A Memoir visit http://sarahthebarge.com and be sure to follow her on her social media sites: Facebook and Twitter.

My The Invisible Girls: A Memoir By: Sara Thebarge Book Review:
When I was reading the book, in the beginning I felt like I was getting kind of lost with the back and forth of the 2 story-lines that was being told but by the time I got to the end everything came together quite nicely. The Invisible Girls was a book that once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. It truly captured my attention and took my breath away. It’s a great inspirational book that will leave you laughing and have tears in your eyes.

I can’t say that I know what it’s like to survive cancer or to be raised in a strict Christian household but through Sarah’s words I could feel her pain, her strength and her courage. Through all the ordeal Sarah had to endure, she found a way to reach out to this Somali family who were struggling in their own way giving her a new perspective on her faith as well as on her life. Having the Somali family in her life also helped heal her soul and pain she was going through.

Reading the struggles that the Somali family were going through hit close to home. I do know what it’s like to be or feel invisible. The Somali family had to deal with a culture shock, how to deal with being true to their ways of life to the new life that they were emerging in to. My dad who was a Hmong refugee came to the United States back in the early 1980’s had went through the same thing this Somali family went through. My dad and his family struggled a lot with the American culture, the feeling of abandonment, the feeling of how to survive in a strange land and no one around to help them adjust to this new way of life. They felt invisible!

This book is definitely something that I can recommend to any book readers out there. You’ll fall in love with Sarah, Hadhi and her 5 young girls. You’ll probably relate to their struggles. If you haven’t read the book I suggest you pick a copy up for yourself. Here is a link to where you can purchase it off of Amazon: The Invisible Girls: A Memoir