Tristan Jacobson sold lemonade in front of his house Friday afternoon—a business venture undertaken by many a third-grader, but probably not for the same reason this third-grader did it. The Missouri 9-year-old was raising money to pay for his adoption, the Springfield News-Leader reports. Tristan has been living with Donnie Davis and her husband Jimmy off-and-on for his whole life, but continuously since he was 5, when the couple became his kinship guardians. As Davis explains on a YouCaring site set up to raise money for the adoption, Tristan was born to a teenager her first (and now ex) husband impregnated. When Tristan's biological father went to prison when Tristan was 3 months old, Davis stepped in to help the boy's biological mother.
Tristan lived with her until he was 2 and a half, at which point he went back to live with his biological mother, but he continued to see the Davises regularly. When he was 4 years old, Donnie noticed a change in him, and found out his biological mom had allegedly turned to drugs and prostitution. She spent months fighting for Tristan to live with her, and she and her husband have acted as Tristan's parents ever since. "Tristan is already our son, in our hearts. But we want to make it official," Donnie writes on YouCaring. "He wants to have our last name. ... He’s such an awesome kid." The fundraising site has raised nearly $10,000 so far to cover attorney's fees and other costs associated with the adoption, and the family is also raising money in other ways—like the yard sale at which Tristan sold lemonade. "I'm happy because I have a new mom who loves me," he said Friday. (More uplifting news stories.)
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