The Invisible Girls: A Memoir

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.

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. Sarah's writing has appeared in Christianity Today, BurnsideWriters.com, Relevant, TheOoze.com, Raysd, and Just Between Us. Her writing for Christianity Today's This Is Our City project won first prize from the National Evangelical Press Association. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon.