In her Magnolia blog, Joanna shared that, as she reflected on her life, she felt like she needed to catch her breath and take a good, hard look at her life. "I found myself jotting down memories and stories from my past, journaling about things I was still, years later, working through. Things had gotten blurry. I'd gotten blurry," she said. "The past 20 years have been a heck of a ride, but I knew I couldn't keep going the way I have. It's hard to explain how I was feeling. I was grateful beyond measure, but exhausted. Loved, but feeling unworthy. Full, but running on empty," she said. "And because my world kept me busy, I could still feel the wheels of my life humming. What became harder to tell is where they should be headed."

Joanna continued to reflect upon her life and how she knew she needed to make some changes. Writing her book, "The Stories We Tell," allowed her to refocus on her priorities — and heal old wounds. "I ended up discovering a lot in my story: clarity, healing, deeper truths I didn't know I could get to. But mostly, these pages brought me back to myself, back to those tender little moments I thought I'd lost. In writing down my story, I had the chance to relive some of the very best chapters of my life," she said.