Because I can not leave well enough alone.

You know, it is an interesting thing having someone live in your house you know very little about.

Especially a child that is calling you mom.

To say I am curious would be an understatement.

So, as it turns out I couldn't help myself and so my story begins...

One of the funeral homes I work with is in Flint. K, my newest foster son is from Flint. It turns out - after figuring out which school he went to prior to coming to live with us - that I have been driving past K's school every week for about 4 years now. I have noticed the school, I have seen kids outside at recess playing at the play ground as I drive by, and who knows, maybe I have even seen K and didn't know it.

So, since having K come to my house he has made several trips with me past his old school to work with he and he always says "There's my school!" very excitedly.

Monday we were making one such trip, I had ALL the kids with me, and I couldn't help myself. I wanted to see if K could remember where he used to live. I figured it had to be close to the school so, after dropping some stuff of at work, I pulled into the school parking lot and asked K which way the bus used to take him home. He pointed down a side street and away we went. Less than a mile down on the left he told me to turn onto his old street and was able to take me right to his last home:

Yes, there are bars on the windows. Yes, it is in a bad area. And, yes, it at least looked inhabitable.

So, we didn't stay long, just kinda paused and drove past. A door or two down was this house, and other around it all boarded up:
And then, at the end of the street was this building:
Now this was interesting. K says, when he sees this building, "I used to go there with my Dad!"

Now, hold on. This house it huge, empty, boarded up and all the windows are broken out. By "Dad" I assume he means the old foster Dad because he doesn't know who his biological Dad is. So, considering the state of this house I started to ask questions.

I asked "What did you do in there?" - to that I didn't really get a response.

I asked "Did your Dad have friends in there?" - to which he said "Yeah"

I asked "Did you Dad used to smoke in there?" - to which he said "Yeah"

I asked "Did your Dad ever buy anything in there?" - to which he said "Yeah"

I asked "What did you used to do in there?" - to which he said "I think I used to eat ice cream"

So, your guess is as good as mine as to if K remembers this correctly or not and to what was going on but I am sure you can figure out my assumption.