Morning Press: Akhil, cold, tree, adoption, toy run, Luna

The clear, dry, cold days are winding down. Check our local weather coverage.

In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:

When life is short, living fully to the end

The sun is surprisingly bright for an April afternoon in the Northwest. The sun’s rays pour through tall windows in the living room, flooding the Jhaveri home with natural light.

Ashley tucks herself into the plush tan couch, one leg curled beneath her body.

She arrived home earlier that afternoon. She took a seven-hour train ride from Cheney, where she’s studying graphic design at Eastern Washington University, to visit her family for the weekend.

As she sits in the quiet house, she strums the strings of her guitar. Akhil asked his oldest daughter to play a song for him. Music is how the pair has always bonded.

Ashley’s voice fills the room.

This is the calming before the storm.
This absolution is always incomplete.
It’s always bittersweet.

Jordan — the youngest of the three Jhaveri girls — plops down next to Ashley. The pair begin to sing another song.
Off to the side sits Akhil. His face lights up as his girls sing. A wide smile spreads across his face. He beams with pride.

In the past, Akhil might have joined in, belting out lyrics with his children. He might have picked up his own guitar and played alongside them. Or he might have danced on the floor in front of them.

• Find more of the three-part story of Akhil Jhaveri, a strong man.

Without shelter, the cold can kill

Victoria and Caden Milligan sleep on a porch at Trinity Lutheran Church in west Vancouver. They have a sleeping bag — no tent — and each other’s body heat to keep warm at night, along with hats and worn-out gloves.

“It’s literally so cold that I can’t grip a fork in the morning,” said Victoria Milligan.

The 21-year-old is pregnant, which makes staying outside with temperatures in the low- to mid-20s all the more difficult. It’s not cold enough for a person to get frostbite. Exposure to the cold, however, can cause hypothermia, where the body’s internal temperature drops below 95 degrees, which can lead to organ failure.

The Milligans walk a lot during the day. Victoria Milligan can’t find shoes that accommodate her swollen, calloused feet, so she wears flip-flops. They’re usually exhausted by the end of the day.

“As long as it’s not too cold, we fall asleep,” said Caden Milligan, 31.

• Learn what’s being done to help homeless people.

Vancouver Christmas tree lights up the night

After last year’s bitter cold and rain, revelers returned in force for this year’s Christmas tree lighting festivities at Esther Short Park on Friday night, with a couple thousand showing up to kick off the season and the Vancouver Rotary Foundation’s Festival of Trees.

Middle school and high school choristers sang carols as people milled around, posed for family photos and grabbed food waiting for Santa to arrive.

The festival, now in its 20th year, runs through the weekend with concerts, singing and other performances, plus a raffle, with all the proceeds from tickets and sponsorship going to the organization’s scholarship programs.

• See the thousands who crowded into Esther Short Park.

Adoptive parents embrace tribal, communal spirit

Among Native American tribes, there’s a sharing, communal spirit, and the saying “It takes a village to raise a child” rings true.

“Other people raise other people’s children all the time,” Zachery Desjarlais said. “It doesn’t have to be a nefarious reason, either.”

Adoption, too, taps into that cooperative heritage getting passed down from generation to generation.

The 34-year-old Vancouver resident belongs to the Chippewa Cree Tribe and grew up on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in Montana. His father is Native American. When Desjarlais was a baby, his cousins’ parents died in a car crash, so his father adopted the girls and raised them as his own daughters. For young Zachery, it was normal to have two biological siblings and two adopted siblings. It was the way life was and the way family was — not all of them blood, but all of them family just the same.

The same goes for Desjarlais’ children. For three of them, being adopted and being Native American is just part of their intricate, fascinating life stories — a history that Zachery and his wife, Sarah Desjarlais, encourage their children to embrace. Three-year-old Atticus used to be considered a “medically fragile baby,” but he’s thriving now. Avi and Anthony, both 6, were born just a handful of days apart. They like to tell people they’re “twins with different mommies.”

“We’re constantly telling a small version of their story,” said Sarah, 33.

As another November and another National Adoption Month comes to a close, it seems the stigma around adoption continues to lessen. It’s OK to be adopted. It’s OK to have adopted and nonadopted children in a family.

• Meet the whole Desjarlais family.

Salvation Army Toy Run keeps on rolling

Vic Voltz put more than 100,000 miles on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle over the years, riding around the western United State and Canada.

Voltz was the chaplain for a Harley owners’ group throughout the West and Canada, and helped put together other Christian riding groups.

“He always liked bikes, but he’s always loved people,” said his youngest son, Dan Voltz.

In that vein, Vic started the Salvation Army Toy Run motorcycle ride in 1983 to gather toys for local children in need.

“And then it grew and grew. I mean, we’ve had ice and show and sunshine,” Dan said. “One of the things that we always talk about is once the ride starts, we always have good weather.”

Dan and his brothers, with the help from the biker clubs that have been participating for years, organize the ride now, he said.

• Follow the Santa Clauses on motorcycles.

Romanian street puppy is home in Vancouver

Even though it was mostly hidden behind a bush, Josh Boelter knew to whom that wagging tail belonged.

Boelter called for Luna, the puppy he found begging for food at a park in Romania, where he was on deployment with the Oregon Air National Guard. Luna came running around the bush to him. He reached in his pocket to grab a treat, but Luna’s mouth was already full.

“She turned around and had this huge dead rat in her mouth,” Boelter said. “I tried to get her to drop the rat, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to let it go. Eventually, she dropped it for a treat, and while she was eating the treat, I kneeled down and threw the rat away. Then she jumped up and licked my face.”

Boelter wasn’t too mad, though. He was more thrilled to find Luna, who had returned to the streets after Boelter was briefly transferred to another base.

• Read more about Luna.