9-year-old US boy sold lemonade to pay for his adoption

In this April 22, 2016, photo, Tristan Jacobson sits on a water cooler in front of his lemonade stand outside his home in Springfield, Mo. Andrew Jansen/The Springfield News-Leader via AP

A nine-year-old boy in the United States spent his summer earning money – not to buy toys, but to pay legal fees for his adoption.

Tristan Jacobson, of Springfield, Missouri, sold bottles of lemonade while customers pay and fill up his donation box.

“He wants the adoption really, really badly,” Tristan’s legal guardian, Donnie Davis, 40, told ABC News in an interview.

Davis, a family friend, took care of Jacobson when he was three months old. However, she had to return him when he was two years old when his biological mother regained communication with them.

Jacobson’s biological mother was a student who had a son and no permanent home. Davis recalled that she frequently saw the young boy wearing ragged and ripped clothes while he was with his biological mother, according to news site ABC News.

Astonishingly, Davis was notified three years later that Jacobson was abandoned in a shelter after his biological mother became a drug addict. She finally brought Jacobson back to her home.

In 2014, Davis became Jacobson’s legal guardian, but the family needed to raise $10,000 (PhP 460,000). As of today, the family earned nearly $20,000 (937,000 PHP) – $6,500 (304,900 PHP) was from Jacobson’s lemonade business while the rest were accumulated from an online fundraising campaign.

Jacobson, who wishes to be named Quill Tristan Davis after the adoption, will be a legal son of the Davis’ family in October. Gianna Francesca Catolico, INQUIRER.net

In this April 22, 2016 photo, Donnie Davis gives Tristan Jacobson a kiss outside their home in Springfield, Mo. Tristan has been living with with Donnie and Jimmy Davis, who have been Tristan’s kinship guardians. They have been holding a yard sale and set up a lemonade stand to raise money for his adoption. (Andrew Jansen/The Springfield News-Leader via AP) NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT