Boy sells lemonade to help pay for his own adoption

Tristan Jacobsen was adopted at age five

Tristan helped to pay legal fees by selling lemonade at $1 per cup (YouCaring / Donnie Davis)

A nine-year-old child has been selling lemonade to help pay for his own adoption, and has helped to raise over $14,000.

Tristan Jacobsen, who was adopted four years ago by Donnie and Jimmy Davis in Missouri, set up a lemonade stand outside their home, selling $1 drinks to neighbours in Springfield.

The family has also raised $7,100 from a car boot sale to assist with the adoption legal fees. They gathered $8,790 from a website called YouCaring.com.

Ms Davis wrote on the site: “Tristan is already our son, in our hearts. But we want to make it official. He wants to have our last name. Actually he has decided he wants to change his first name. And we are letting him. He has picked out the name of Quill Tristan Davis. He is so excited; he tries to tell his teachers to call him that now. He’s such an awesome kid.”

She said any extra funds would go towards Tristan’s education.

“She will be my parent,” he told the Springfield News-Leader. “I'm happy because I have a new mom who loves me.”

Ms Davis explained on YouCaring.com that Tristan lived with her and her husband from three months old until two and a half. His biological parents, she said, are her former husband and a 15-year-old girl he had an affair with.

The mother allegedly took drugs, became a sex worker and locked Tristan in a cupboard with no light.

Tristan was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder as a result of being in the same room with his biological mother when she was allegedly smoking meth.

Since Ms Davis became his legal guardian, he was placed in a classroom for pupils with special emotional and behavioural needs and was on anti-depressants.

Ms Davis said she has seen a massive improvement in his well-being over time.

“He has straight A’s, and he’s getting 100% at least 3 days a week for behavior.,” she wrote. ”The other days, he’s getting a 92 or higher. He’s slowly learning to make friends and have healthy relationships with them."