Finding Your Own Inner Strength

by Lori Osterman

One woman's struggle to work past her pain and desire to end her life as she realized she had a purpose; that she needed to stay and find out who she was meant to be.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Self Help

36 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 16, 2010

About the author

Here All Along is one woman's struggle to leave an abusive marriage, twice. Her struggle through the court system in hopes of finding someone to help protect her and her daughters from her ex-husbands who refused to let go. Her fight to obtain and keep her restraining order three years in a row and finally learning who she could count on to protect her and her children. Here All Along is an inspirational story of one woman's fight for freedom, her desire to protect her children and finding the strength to believe in herself. No one should ever be abused by someone who says "I love you."

Reviews

[Himavad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book, no nonsense, very real. You spend less time reading and more time reflecting.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You are here to change the world, change someone’s life, or save someone’s soul."

"if you give up, no one will ever know who you were meant to be."

[Creative Person Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glad You Made it Through, Lori, to Share with Girls Who Have Been Hurt Like You

This is a straightforward account about sexual violation on a girl at age 8, by a "man of God", her step-father. There isn't poetry in the telling, nor artful distillation, just the plain experiences endured by the author, including the things she longed for, the same things that any little girl would want. To be held, to be loved and helped to feel her worth. Despite the self-hatred that afflicts far too many young girls who have been sexually abused, who far too frequently engage in self-mutilation, cutting, and attempt suicide, Lori Osterman pulled out of her death tumble with pills and lived to become the loving mother she dreamed of. Hers is a generous soul in having surmounted her damaged ego, that she would speak truth into the maw of silence that quiets the tongues of far too many abused girls.

I recommend this book for anyone who is a sister in Lori's childhood experience--and for anyone who loves a girl, a sister, a niece or a friend's child who has suffered through this violation and the subsequent self-hatred.

Get help and take heart. You are worthy of the love that was stolen from you.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange book. Not sure where or why I picked this up (it was on my Nook). It reminded me of 'Veronica Decides to Die' by Paul Coelho. Maybe to the person that wrote it, it's a very open tale of hurt...but to me, I was left in the dark. It has a good message, but it reads like a journal entry. Maybe it is. :)

[Cheri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very short read. I came away more angry than anything. She didn't help the little girl. She took a cash settlement. Where was her inner strength. The title did not fit.