SEFFNER - Charlea, 17, took on the role of an adult when she lived at home due to the frequent absence of her mom.
She lacked the one emotion children crave the most, love. Her desire for that adoration led her to look for it in all the wrong places.
"It was so hard to be a kid," she said.
Now Charlea lives at Family Ministries of Florida, a tree-lined 15-acre live-in foster home and school complex in Seffner for at-risk youngsters between the ages of 6 and 18.
Her house parents, Sharon and Eric Gustafson, deliver a God-centered environment to her and other children, helping them improve their overall wellbeing and changing their outlooks.
"They taught me to be like a child and not in a motherly role and they have given me an everlasting love," Charlea said. "They've set me up for the rest of my life."
She will soon enter her senior year at the on-site Legacy Christian Academy, a fully accredited private school with grades 1 through 12 that serves both the live-in students as well as others who commute from throughout the community.
Charlea credits her new-found "mom" and "dad" with sticking by her side throughout all her trials and tribulations, including a heart-wrenching court appearance involving her biological parents. She just landed her first job and following graduation, she plans to go to college and work towards a career in law enforcement.
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It's the parenting role that appears to be so effective at Family Ministries. Elijah, 9, who came to live with the Gustafsons about two years ago after being in two other foster homes, says his current experience pales in comparison to other foster homes where people "were mean" to him.
"They brought me out of the shadows and they are like really good parents," Elijah said.
Coincidently, Sharon Gustafson was in foster care at the same location years ago when it operated as a satellite unit under the name of Cookson Hills Christian Ministries.
From the ages of 3 through 7 she had been in and out of multiple shelters and other group homes before returning home to endure a strained relationship with her mother.
At 16 she ran away from home and through a series of circumstances came to live at the Seffner site.
"I really liked it because I got the feeling that I really belonged. I think what set it apart from many others is that it is modeled after a traditional home."
Upon learning she could continue her education at the Oklahoma headquarters in its on-campus school, she moved up there and resided in a group home with Bob and Nikki Sharp as her house parents while she finished high school.
"Bob is really truly the first male role model I ever had," Sharon Gustafson said. "I still have a picture of a little girl on a swing reaching out to the outstretched hand of God that he gave me. I cherish it."
She went on to earn a college degree and marry her husband, whom she met while a student at a Christian-based college.
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In 2000 Cookson Hills Christian Ministries in Seffner severed ties with the out-of-state organization and re-organized under its current name and the leadership of none other than Bob Sharp, the executive director.
It was Sharp who enticed the couple to become house parents there in 2013, one year prior to the school's opening.
According to Bob Sharp, that model has worked exceptionally well.
"We're kind of out-of-the-box in what we do because we try to bring in kids of all kinds, including sibling groups," he said. "In the school we also meet the children where they are academically and move forward from there."
"God has put us in the right place," said Sharon Gustafson, who noted they have three biological children in addition to six other kids who all live under the same roof in an on-campus cottage.
"When people ask me which ones are mine I tell them they are all mine," she added. "Although we do tell the (foster) kids that we were never meant to replace their real parents."