The Heartbreaking Tale Of The Boy Selling Lemonade To Pay For His Adoption

My eyes are welling up and I haven’t even gotten past the first sentence.

Tristin Jacobson was dealt a painful and unfair hand. At the tender age of five, Tristin’s mother abandoned him, leaving him on the doorstep of a homeless shelter on a cold winter night. According to the Springfield News-Leader, Tristin’s mother suffered from drug addiction and was prostituting herself for money in order to fund her habits.

Now pushing nine, Tristin longed to be adopted by his kinship guardian, Donnie Davis. Certainly not due to a lack of love, Davis was unfortunately unable to adopt him, and this broke her heart. She simply didn’t have the funds to adopt him, and adopting is a thorough and very expensive process.

Tristin, however, was not ready to give up, not by a longshot. Tristin decided to put his math skills (his favorite subject in school) to work by opening up a lemonade stand, doling out refreshing drinks to passersby for $1. Day in and day out, this brave young man found the courage and drive to pick himself up each morning and head back to work, a lifestyle normally reserved for adults who have had the blessings of growing up with a loving family. He didn’t depend on others for help though; he made his own way, and nothing as ridiculous as money was going to impede him from making it to the top.

“She will be my parent,” he said in regards to Donnie. “I’m happy because I have a new mom who loves me.”

Despite all the legality issues surrounding parenting, Donnie assures everyone that regardless what anyone says, her love for Tristin makes her his mother, no matter what. “It means everything. He is absolutely our son. He is in our hearts. This is more for reassurance for him, knowing that he has his forever family and he has our name.”

Although he did eventually receive help from others (out of the kindness of their hearts and not because he asked), the young entrepreneur set a goal for himself of $5,000. In order to generate a little more cashflow for her little man, Donnie also set up a funding campaign on YouCaring.com and raised a whopping $6,900. Coupled with the $7,100 Tristin made from the lemonade stand and a garage sale Donnie and Jimmy (Donnie’s wife and Tristin’s other kinship guardian) put together, the little family of fighters raised a grand total of $14,000.

Donnie embraces Tristin in a way that only a loving mother could.

Suffice it to say, Tristin (now Tristin Davis) climbed his way out of this heartbreaking story and into the arms of a loving family, making this a happy ending infinitely more gratifying than any Disney film could ever fabricate.

“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.”

Source: Springfield News-Leader, WGNTV, The Ant Media, Saboteur 365, Fox2Now