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Lemonade For Sale: Third-Grade Boy, Tristen Jacobson, Sells Lemonade To Help Pay For His Adoption

By Pam Wright
Published on: 04:36 PST, Apr 23, 2016

Lemonade anyone?

It is common for children in neighborhoods across America to set up a lemonade stands during the summer months, hoping to earn a little extra money — perhaps even enough to buy a bike or the latest video game.

A third-grade boy in Springfield, Missouri, took the entrepreneurial initiative of selling lemonade for a very different purpose — in the hope of generating funds that will help him get ever closer to being adopted.

According to the Springfield News Leader, 9-year-old Tristan Jacobson waited patiently Friday for customers to buy his lemonade for a dollar.

The young lad’s goal is to help raise funds to go towards the legal fees needed to pay for his adoption by Donnie Davis, who watched Tristan’s efforts from the family’s front porch.

Tristan didn’t seem all that concerned over how much money he would make selling his sweet concoction because he had something even better to think about — a new mom.

“She will be my parent. I’m happy because I have a new mom who loves me.”

The third-grader at Williams Elementary School in Springfield seems born to be a salesman and had little trouble with the accounting needed for his lemonade stand. After all, his favorite subject is math.

“I’m in fractions now. It’s easy for me.”

Tristan apparently needed a little help in perfecting his customer service skills with his lemonade clients, Davis told KY3.

“I’ve kind of coached him on some things to say, and he gets a little nervous and stuff. Sometimes he’ll just sit there, and I’m like, ‘You have to greet them.'”

Tristan improved upon those skills throughout the day Friday and became adept as interacting his patrons.

“He thanks them and says, ‘Thank you for supporting our adoption.’ It’s kind of precious.”

Tristan’s mom-to-be is also helping raise funds for the adoption legal fees with a yard sale.

Davis told the News Herald that she and her husband, Jimmy, have been Tristan’s kinship guardians since the boy was five and hope to raise about $5,000 for legal and adoption fees.

Davis said she and her husband became Tristan’s kinship guardian when Tristan’s mom, who was living a life of prostitution and drugs, left the then 5-year-old on the doorstep of a shelter on a 17-degree January day.

“I was scared to death. If he was scared, if he was hurt, what was going on through his mind.”

In some ways, the old adage coined by Christian anarchist writer Elbert Hubbard — when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade — holds true for Tristan and his family, both literally and figuratively.

Davis said Tristan is already their son in their hearts, and they look forward to the day when he is their son legally.

“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.”

As for Tristan, he is confident about the future.

“I know she’s responsible for taking care of me, and I know she’s going to be a great mother.”

In addition to the lemonade stand, a Go Fund Me site was launched on behalf of Tristan Jacobson and his quest to be adopted on Friday.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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