Three girls wore all black sweat suits to school on Fridays for their games on the weekends. One walked with a limp, another tall and lean with curly black hair, and third wore colorful socks with Birkenstocks. They look like athletes. Possibly basketball or maybe even soccer, but most would not guess hockey.

Junior Lauren White thought that after her sister Mary-Kate graduated last school year she would be an only child, but that didn’t happen. She’s on the only all girls hockey team in the state and has taken in some extra siblings this school year. Carrington Nevard,10 and Ryanne Mix, 9, who are originally from Tri-Cities live here and are aspiring to play hockey in bigger leagues. The girls practice three times a week for three hours and have tournamnets in Canada every weekend. White’s family has taken them in as their own children.

“At first it was a little awkward because Ryanne and I had only met Lauren at one practice. Now we are inseparable, they are like sisters I never had and we do everything together,” Nevard said.

Living without their families and not being surrounded by their loved ones is hard on Nevard and Mix, but they seem to do okay, “My mom usually comes to my games every weekend, and we stay in our house in Lynden, but it’s still not the same as living with them. I am more responsible for myself,” Mix said.

Nevard and Mix get to go home to their families twice this school year, for Christmas and Thanksgiving, but only for a couple days because they fly out on Christmas Day for a hockey tournament, “I text my mom almost every day, but it’s not the same as seeing her, which I haven’t in a little over four months so I’m excited for the couple of days I can spend with her and my dad,” Nevard said.

Lauren doesn’t mind sharing her family with these two girls, “My family is now theirs and it’s nice not being an only child considering all my actual sisters are across the country for college. Without Ryanne and Carrington it would be lonely. They truly do live an extraordinary life,” White said