Overview

• Daughter Ella Gaines, 18, departed for her first year at a university farther from the family’s Waco, Texas home, a milestone confirmed by Joanna’s August 14 Instagram post.
• Her brother Drake chose an in-state college where he plays baseball, highlighting the sisters’ diverging paths to independence.
• Joanna shared an emotional photo of Ella’s packed bags and expanded on those feelings in the fall issue of Magnolia Journal.
• In her editor’s note, she promised to support her children “surely and steadily,” emphasizing that emotional closeness transcends physical distance.
• The Gaines family continues to honor private rites of passage through carefully curated social posts and Magnolia Journal features while maintaining their children’s privacy.