Joanna Gaines is sharing candid images from her long wished-for family vacation to Seoul, South Korea.
The “Fixer Upper” star, 44, whose mother, Nan, is Korean, posted a video montage from the “dream” trip in an Instagram reel on April 12.
The footage shows Gaines and two dozen other family members, including both her parents as well as her husband and co-star, Chip Gaines, and the couple’s children immersing themselves in South Korean culture and history.
“For years, my mother has talked about taking her three daughters to Seoul, Korea, when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. And for years, that’s all it was — a dream we’d talk about in that ‘maybe, someday’ way we all do when something feels just a little out of reach.
“But this year, we decided to finally book it, and we convinced 24 members of our family to come with us to visit the place where my mom grew up,” Joanna Gaines wrote in the caption.
Gaines explained that she, her husband and their kids, including youngest son, Crew, 4, met family members in Seoul that they had only seen before in pictures.
“We saw the cherry blossoms in full bloom. We walked the same streets my mother did as a young girl, and then again as a young woman with my dad’s hand in hers,” Gaines wrote.
“In a lot of ways, this trip felt like coming home. Somehow, connecting with my mom’s past made my own story feel more complete,” she added.
Together, they all experienced Seoul’s natural beauty, cuisine and customs, with Joanna, Nan and Crew treating the rest of the family to a fashion show where they each modeled beautifully designed traditional Korean hanbok.
Gaines, who also shares four other kids with her husband — Drake, 18, Ella, 16, Duke, 14, and Emmie, 13 — concluded her post by gushing, “Feeling grateful for every moment this trip gave us.”
During a November 2022 episode of her “The Stories We Tell with Joanna Gaines“ podcast, Gaines, who grew up in rural Kansas, apologized to her mother for failing to embrace her Korean roots as a child.
“I don’t know that I ever told you this,” said Gaines. “But I always wanted to say I was sorry for living in halfness. And not fully embracing the most beautiful thing about myself, which was you. The culture that was half of me as a Korean little girl, as a Korean teenager, as a Korean woman.”
Gaines tearfully recalled an experience she had walking the streets of Koreatown in New York City as a senior in college that inspired her to begin to embrace her heritage.
“I didn’t fully own who I was until that moment,” she said. “That I am this culture, this Korean history, this Korean story, my Korean mother, my Korean grandmother. That’s the richest part of who I am. And walking in the fullness of that really changed the narrative for me.”
“I just wanted to tell you mom, that I now am fully in a place of just complete pride,” she added.
Gaines also detailed the experience of growing up biracial in the rural U.S. in her 2022 memoir, “The Stories We Tell."
“I tried my best to fit in, acting as though I didn’t get their jokes about my slanted eyes or hear their whispers when I’d opt for rice instead of fries in the cafeteria line,” she wrote in the book.
“I think a lot of people can relate to the idea of being teased,” Gaines said while promoting the book during a November 2022 visit to TODAY.
“The biggest thing for me was because it wasn’t dealt with, it resurfaced in different ways.”