Empty-Nest Joyride: Hope, Love, and Purpose on the Road to Contentment

Empty-Nest Joyride: Hope, Love, and Purpose on the Road to Contentment

Reignite Your Marriage, Rediscover Yourself, and Embrace the Empty Nest with Joy! You’ve been parenting for years, and now face the sudden realization that this ride, and your role, are about to change. Like exiting a busy highway, you might look forward to a slower, gentler, and more relaxing pace. Or, perhaps the quiet path ahead fills you with uncertainty and the dread of emptiness. You’re about to embark on an unfamiliar journey. What lies around the bend is a mystery. Linda Hanstra has been around that bend. In Empty-Nest Joyride, she shares a heartfelt collection of personal stories inspired by bike rides through the Midwest countryside. Using cycling adventures as metaphors, she reflects on the challenges and blessings of this midlife stage with humor, warmth, and wisdom. Whether you’re approaching the empty nest or already in the midst of it, this book will encourage you to: Reach for new opportunities in personal and spiritual growth Ignite and rekindle the spark in your marriage Dream of ambitions you put on hold during the parenting years Engage in healthy, fulfilling relationships with your adult children Hit the trail with Linda Hanstra and discover how you can fill life’s next chapter with hope, love, and purpose—together with unexpected joy—on the road to contentment. Linda Hanstra's memoir, Empty Nest Joyride, is a heartfelt, relatable, and richly layered reflection on marriage, parenting, aging, and rediscovering purpose in the empty nest years. From the very first chapter, I was hooked—curious about her husband's accident and captivated by the biking metaphor that winds beautifully through every page. Linda masterfully parallels the ups and downs of biking with real-life challenges, using humor, honesty, and vulnerability to invite readers into her story. Whether she's navigating marital communication, letting go of grown children, or adapting to the realities of aging, her reflections are both deeply personal and universally resonant. Each chapter offers wisdom wrapped in storytelling—highlighting the beauty of long-haul love, the faith it takes to release control, and the joy that can be found in unexpected seasons. Her openness about struggles, both hers and her children's, will bless and encourage many, especially those walking through similar seasons. What I appreciated most was Linda's humility and grace. She shares both victories and failures with warmth and insight, offering practical takeaways and encouraging spiritual truths. Readers will laugh, tear up, and most of all, feel seen. This memoir is a gift to any reader stepping into—or already in—the empty nest season, especially those looking for a renewed sense of purpose. Linda has done a wonderful job weaving life, faith, and biking into an inspiring ride toward contentment. -Cheryl Balcom, Author of "Winds of Grace: A Memoir" In Empty-Nest Joyride , Linda Hanstra uses the sport of biking as a rich, extended metaphor—paralleling the joys and jolts of raising an active family through the years, then rounding the bend into a quieter, nest-emptied season. With faith, humor, and a steady cadence, she invites readers to join her and her husband, Tom, as they rediscover each other on two wheels. Fueled by trust in God and the soundtrack of favorite songs, Linda's joyride takes us down Michigan backroads, through memory, mishap, and renewal—reminding us that even scraped knees and sudden turns can lead somewhere good. Even though I'm not an empty nester in the traditional sense—my parenting continues in deep and meaningful ways as I walk alongside my autistic adult son—and even though I'm traveling this road as a widow, Linda's reflections still spoke to me. Because Empty Nest Joyride isn't just about children growing up or marriages shifting—it's about holding joy and change together. About trusting God on uncertain roads. About the way life continues to invite us to rediscover purpose, even when the terrain isn't what we expected. And that's a message for all of us. -Linda Cobourn, Author of "Crazy: A Diary," and "Tap Dancing in Church" After 26 years of parenting children, Linda Hanstra and her husband were facing the empty nest—or was it the "mighty nest"? "The saying goes 'birds of a feather flock together,'" she writes. "But can two birds of different feathers build a mighty nest together?" In this lovely, wisdom-filled book, she shares her own story of how her nest filled up once upon a time and emptied, one by one, as her four children took different paths to college and beyond. Anyone facing the empty-nest years will find Hanstra to be a gentle, winsome guide as they confront changing roles, parenting young adults, and, hopefully, reinventing a marriage and what it means to have a full house of two. Biking enthusiasts will love her stories based on the Hanstras' shared biking hobby. Lorilee Craker, Mixed Media Editor - The Banner. Author of 16 books, including her most rece