Joanna Gaines Tears Up Talking About Her Immigrant Mother – ‘She Fought For The Family’

Joanna Gaines of “Fixer Upper” fame became emotional on Tuesday as she discussed the struggles of her immigrant mother, Nan Stevens, who sacrificed everything so that her family could have a better life in America.

Joanna Discusses Her Mother 

While talking to Hoda Kotb on her SiriusXM show “The Hoda Show,” Joanna talked about her mother moving to the United States from South Korea at the age of 19. Her mom didn’t speak any English.

Joanna and her husband Chip recently launched the Magnolia Network.

“A couple of years ago, in 2014, when this all started happening, [Chip and I] were at this lounge area that looks over Central Park, and we took it in for a second and we both started crying,” said Joanna, 43. 

“We thought, if my mom, who came here at 19 years old from South Korea, would know that her daughter would one day experience the world like this…” she added as she got emotional herself. “So we went back there last night to just really experience that magic.”

Related: Chip And Joanna Gaines Explain Why Divorce Wasn’t An Option – ‘We’re Not Quitters’ (Video)

Joanna’s Mother’s Struggles 

Joanna went on to recall her mother using a bicycle to get around everywhere because she struggled to get a driver’s license at first.

“When I think about how much she fought for the family, for all the things, the dreams… when she talks to me now, she says ‘never in a million years would I think that I would have a daughter [who gets to do these things],’” she added.

Joanna has never forgotten her mother’s struggles and the things that she learned from them. 

“Through the lens of all that she’s been through — the hardship, the fight — I think, for her, I think for both of us, it’s that thing of like, ‘Mom, you set me up well. You set me up well because of the way you fought for this, your passion, now I get to kind of live in that wake,'” she said. 

Related: Chip And Joanna Gaines Make It Clear They’re ‘Far From’ Racist Or Homophobic

Joanna Talks Growing Up Biracial

Joanna has opened up in the past about what it was like to grow up in Texas as a biracial woman. Her dad, Jerry Stevens, is of German and Lebanese descent. 

“My mom is full Korean and my dad is Caucasian,” she recalled. “Kids in kindergarten would make fun of me for being Asian, and when you’re that age you don’t know really how to process that; the way you take that is, ‘Who I am isn’t good enough.'”

“I remember as a little girl being out with my mom and seeing how in a moment, a person’s harsh look or an underhanded comment would attempt to belittle her rich story and her beautiful culture,” Joanna Gaines reminisced about her immigrant mother.

These days, however, Joanna could not be more grateful for her Korean heritage. 

“Fast forward to today and my Korean heritage is one of the things I’m most proud of,” she continued. “I’m trying to make up for that lost time – the culture is just so beautiful. I think discovering who you are and what you were made to do is a lifelong journey.”

Joanna and her family really have lived the American dream!

God bless her mother for making such a huge sacrifice. Leftists can hate on America all they want to, but this is one of the few country’s on earth where this kind of dream has a possibility of coming true.