Author Archives: Debbie Nichols

White House Community Leaders briefing on August 12, 2011

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PRESS RELEASE- 7/7/11
Debbie Nichols
714-536-6184 telephone
debbie@grandparentsbeingparents.com
www.grandparentsbeingparents.com
www.debbienicholsspeaker.com

Debbie Nichols has been selected by the White House to attend the White House Community Leaders briefing on August 12, 2011.

This first time all day briefing is an opportunity for Community Leaders to come to Washington DC to hear directly from White House officials and what is affecting communities across our Country. To learn more about the President’s priorities and initiatives from the people that work on them every day. In return, Administration staff gets to hear what is going on in the community directly from those leaders.

Debbie plans to share her personal story of a working empty nester raising her granddaughters during her United States Air Force daughter deployment to Afghanistan .Debbie and her husband changed their entire lifestyle, overnight. At that time there was no information, support, or public awareness for military families responsible for the care of military deployed children.

Debbie is the author of – Deployed Grandparents being Parents. She created a website providing information on how to cope with all stages of deployment and reintegration. Together Debbie and her granddaughters wrote book – Deployed Kids, sharing their side of the story about their mother’s deployment. They created a blog/ website- www.deployedkids.com for military children, hoping to help children who face the challenges of military life.

In 2010, Debbie began speaking at Military families Yellow Ribbon events sharing her experiences during deployment. The families learn how to prepare, adjust, and focus on keeping the children connected with their deployed parent, while creating a positive experience.

When Debbie’s daughter returned from her deployment she faced the biggest challenge of all, adjusting back prior to deployment. Debbie found deployed families are unprepared for this emotional transition. Each member of the family experiences their own personal deployment.

“It was the most challenging time of my life, yet the most rewarding”-quote by Debbie Nichols interviewed by the National Guard Foundation magazine, November 2010,

Debbie feels our schools, businesses, and communities are unaware of what military families truly need. She will share new ideas with the White House Administration staff in hopes of improving our military families’ experiences.

My parents joined me with my grandkids

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My granddaughters came to visit us last week during their summer vacation. My eldest granddaughter, Ivie invited her friend Christiana to come spend the day with us.  Ivie meet  Christiana in school when my granddaughters lived with us during my daughter’s deployment. The two of them have kept in touch with each other over the years via email.

I  decided to take the girls  to the beach and go bicycle riding. The youngest granddaughter does not know how to ride a bike, so I thought about renting a bicycle for all of us. They have these four to six seat bicycles at Huntington Beach pier for rent. I have my own bike and Alan and I ride our bikes on weekends along the beach and  we have seen others on these special bikes. So I thought this would be a perfect time for us to try this out. I found out quickly these bikes  are a bit hard to ride, since my legs are very long, and I did get a good workout! We would all talk while were riding along the beach. We had a bell on the handle bars and a break to stop. We would ring the bell if someone was in our way. 

My mom and dad decided they wanted to join us, so they brought their bicycles and meet up with us. We rode along along the beach and up to this hill top point in Huntington Beach. Down below is a beach for dogs. It’s fun watching the dogs run and play with one another. When we rode back and down the hill the girls all laughed and screamed.

We had so much fun that day!