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Five years later, Michael left teaching to develop one of the first luxury rental buildings on the Lower East Side, on property owned by Leslie's family. He fell in love with the rich cultural and social mix of the neighborhood, where waves of immigrants had settled since the early 19th century. The Rosens purchased their penthouse in a former settlement house that had been converted into condominiums. At the time, Tompkins Square Park, across the street, was teeming with homeless people living in makeshift shacks. When Leslie spotted a flock of pigeons nesting in an area of the condo that Michael said would be their master bedroom, she says, she thought her husband had lost his mind.In 1991, when the family moved in, Ripton, who was adopted as an infant, was six months old. Morgan, also adopted, joined the family two years later. Soon the park was closed, to be renovated into an urban showplace of playgrounds and green space. Michael made significant money in Lower East Side real estate before moving to Wall Street, and Leslie joined an ob-gyn practice in SoHo. The family enjoyed ski vacations in the winter and summers on Shelter Island.
The five boys who came to play video games reshuffled everything. "In the beginning, it was just a lot of kids swarming all over the place," says Michael. Things then began shifting in small ways. When the Rosens realized Carlos wasn't attending school because he didn't have suitable clothes, they bought him some. Then one night, they took the group to a bookstore after a Chinese dinner and realized there were other needs. "The boys had no interest in books at all," Michael says. Back at the penthouse, he insisted they sit down to read aloud. "Their vocabularies were limited," he says. "But my concept of what is smart and what is not changed that night, because these kids were all smart but also uneducated."
The boys still typically slept at their homes, though they spent after-school hours, most weekends and summer nights at the penthouse. There, a half-hour reading period before video games or television was instituted. The kitchen timer was set, and everyone had to circle the words they didn't know. One summer, Michael took all the boys to the library; each got a card and picked a subject to study. Will, Michael remembers, chose bodybuilding. The subject didn't matter; reading did. A poet friend of the Rosens' suggested buying copies of Moby Dick and reading it together around the dining-room table. "Well, it was a nightmare," admits Michael. "That book is not written in a language these kids speak. But we kept pushing and pushing."
Slowly the big boys became an integral part of the Rosen household, even helping to light the candles at Hanukkah. Chores were assigned, including cleaning, loading the dishwasher and walking Mr. Jenkins, the family dog. Arguments broke out when rules were ignored; it was never a scene from The Brady Bunch.
The boys' own families were puzzled by what was transpiring. "My mom didn't believe me when I told her about the penthouse," says Kindu. "She thought I was involved with something bad." Juan Carlos's mother, Esther Ruiz, wondered, "Why would the Rosens be doing this?" But as time went on, she noticed changes in her son. "It wasn't just the streets anymore. He was getting responsible. Michael and Leslie are the best."
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