Joanna Gaines is a mom to five but slowly and surely each of her children is growing up and flying the nest.
Son Drake left for college in 2023 and this fall it is the turn of her eldest daughter Ella, who Joanna reveals had her "heart captured by a university even farther away than the one where my oldest, Drake, has settled".
Drake stayed close to their home outside of Waco, Texas by choosing an in-state school where he plays baseball.
However, it seems Ella has chosen to fly further, and in the new issue of Magnolia Journal, Joanna has recalled her own advice as she enters this new era.
"The best advice I’m offering myself this season is to be there for them the same way I always have: surely and steadily," wrote Joanna in the editor's note of the fall issue.
"For Drake and Ella, it might look like experimenting: care packages with their favorite cookies and surprise visits for an afternoon coffee. But it will also look the same way it always has: a listening ear, texts that let them know I’m here."
She continued: "Because the hope, I think, is that my children will know—no matter how far or near they are—that proximity isn’t what truly connects us."
The Magnolia Journal Fall 2025 Issue also sees Joanna discuss her ongoing nome renovation and how she has placed her focus on finding ways to improve family gatherings, as well as "finding ways to embrace this season, or reach for familiar rhythms and find new revelations".
© Lisa Petrole for Magnolia JournalFamily gatherings are a core pillar of the life Joanna and her husband Chip have built and in the new issues Joanna shared a vision of the future: "A maybe-someday image of all of us in one room at one long table—maybe two—face to face and shoulder to shoulder.
"I imagined our five kids with families of their own and all the memories that might await in a choice to make space for more."
© HGTVIn the meantime, the dining table features all seven of the Gaines' – Joanna, Chip, Drake, Ella, 18, Duke, 17, Emmie, 15, and seven-year-old Crew – and they recently enjoyed one of their final dinners together for several months.
"Gulp. Last dinner together before our oldest heads back to college and our second is about to leave home for her freshman year," Joanna penned alongside a video which featured all five of her kids (with most of their faces obscured from the camera to maintain their privacy) at the table.
"Thankful for the group hug and all the puppies to help me work through my wide range of emotions. And also Crew's motor bike, it made me feel like a kid again," she quipped. "I love you kids so much."
© Lisa Petrole for Magnolia Journal
