9-Year-Old Sells Lemonade To Pay For His Own Adoption

Boy sells lemonade to raise money for adoption

A 9-year-old boy set up a lemonade stand last week to raise money for his own adoption. Tristan Jacobson spent Friday and Saturday selling lemonade for $1 with each successful sale bringing him one step closer to finalizing his adoption.

“I’m happy because I have a new mom who loves me,” the third grader said of Donnie Davis, who has helped raised him since he was about three months old. Davis hosted a yard sale through Saturday afternoon alongside Tristan at their home in Springfield, Missouri so the family could raise the $5,000 needed for legal fees.

Davis and her husband, Jimmy, already consider themselves Tristan’s family. “It means everything. He is absolutely our son. He is in our hearts,” she said. “This is more for reassurance for him, knowing that he has his forever family, and he has our name.” Tristan’s biological mother reached out to Davis for help when Tristan was still an infant because she was struggling with drugs. At one point in Tristan’s young life she did try to raise him. But on a 17-degree day in 2012 she left Tristan, then five years old, on the doorstep of a shelter, KYTV reported.

Davis had already been a part of Tristan’s life so the shelter called her. “I was scared to death,” she said. “If he was scared, if he was hurt, what was going on through his mind?” Since then David and her husband have been Tristan’s kinship guardians, the Springfield News Leader reported. “In mine and my husband’s hearts, that’s our son,” she said. “Nobody can tell us any different. That is our son. He wants to be legally ours.”

Tristan already feels at home, too. “I know she’s responsible, taking care of me,” he said of Davis. “I know she’s going to be a great mother.” The family just needed to raise the money to make it official. The yard sale and lemonade stand were huge hits in the community over the weekend. Davis said they raised about $7,100 from the two events. Tristan’s story gained national attention, and the family set up an online fundraiser as well on YouCaring.com, where they shared Tristan’s adoption story. As of Monday morning, people have donated $8,410 through the site while sending encouraging messages to the family.

“There’s not enough words to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who has shown support or given us donations,” Davis said. “Everyone has made this possible. We will make sure this child will forever be ours.”