Beyond the Green Gate

Cambodia changed everything.

For Sheryl, opening the latch on the imposing green gate in Southeast Asia for the first time wasn't just a physical act-it was a terrifying break from the safe, comfortable life she once knew back in Colorado. 

In 2003, when she, her husband, John, and their seven children traded their chickens and mountain views for chaotic streets of Phnom Penh, for landmines that still lurked beneath jungle paths, and for shadows of the Khmer Rouge that haunted every village, Sheryl did not know what lay ahead. Soon, what began as a mission to help orphaned children quickly became a journey into the darkest corners of human suffering: both Cambodians' and her own.

This unflinching memoir chronicles over a decade of the Roberts family's extraordinary and chaotic life: raising a boisterous family, clinging to deep faith and unbreakable family bonds, surviving an unforgiving climate in a land of collective trauma, and striving to find belonging, safety and home.

Her vivid storytelling captures both the breathtaking beauty of Cambodia's rice fields and monsoon rains, and the heartbreaking reality of a country still healing from genocide. It's a raw, honest account of what happens when idealism meets reality, when faith is stripped down to its essence, and when a family discovers that sometimes the greatest act of sacrifice is leaving what no longer works behind.