Teresa Giudice Helps Daughter Gia Move Into Her Rutgers Dorm as She Drops Her Off for First Time
There is one less bird in Teresa Giudice‘s nest!
The day finally came for the Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 47, to drop her eldest daughter Gia Giudice off at Rutgers University on Thursday.
Not wanting to miss a single moment, Teresa documented the day on her Instagram Stories and included everything from packing up their truck to unloading her luggage outside of her dorm, to putting the perfect touches on Gia’s new home away from home.
The series of videos began outside the Giudice’s New Jersey home where Teresa’s brother Joe Gorga helped pack Gia’s stuff inside their white pick-up truck.
“There’s my brother helping to pack up Gia!” Teresa said as she recorded her brother loading luggage into the front and back seat.
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But one heavy suitcase wasn’t all Gia, 18, planned to bring with her to college.
Besides the numerous cardboard boxes and crates packed tightly in the bed of the pick-up truck, Teresa revealed that Gia had a total of five suitcases packed to bring with her to Rutgers.
“She packed too much! She has five suitcases!” Teresa told her followers, before cutting to an emotional moment where Gia was hunched over on the ground saying goodbye to her dog, Bella.
Though her face could not be seen in the video, it was rather clear that the teen was crying as she held her white dog in her arms and yelled at Teresa for filming her during the raw moment.
The tearful goodbye didn’t last for too long, and pretty soon, Gia and her family (sans her father Joe Giudice) were on their way to Rutgers.
When they finally arrived, Teresa recorded her daughter moving into her dorm with the assistance of the college’s move-in crew. She also snapped Gia’s little sister Milania, 14, walking into the building.
The mom of four made sure to document the little moments throughout the afternoon, such as the white shelf and bed headboard her brother helped construct, the mess that initially covered Gia’s dorm room, her sisters helping unpack and the beautiful view.
“Gia! You have a nice view! Wow, beautiful view!” Teresa can be heard saying while recording the body of water that was right outside Gia’s window.
Of course, no good college dorm room is complete without a bunch of photo frames and lights — and Gia made sure to incorporate those throughout the room to make the new space feel a bit more comfortable and familiar.
Teresa chose to end her series of videos with a photo that was taken from behind that featured her daughters hugging and snapping a photo together in Gia’s newly completed dorm room.
Keeping it simple, Teresa captioned the shot, “#Sisters.”
Months after she toured schools with her mom, Gia announced in May that she would be attending Rutgers University in the fall.
“It’s official… RU 2023????” Gia captioned two Instagram photos of herself wearing a Rutgers shirt.
In June, Teresa documented her daughter’s high school graduation as she walked across the stage and received her diploma.
Along with Gia’s white graduation gown and nude heels, the teen showed off her bedazzled cap, which had “R U Ready” written on it in diamond-studded letters — a play on Rutgers University.
A post shared by Gia Giudice (@_giagiudice) on May 1, 2019 at 5:03pm PDT
While Gia is excited about starting college, the milestone comes amid a trying time for the Giudice family, who are awaiting family patriarch Joe’s fate.
Joe and Teresa — who also share daughters Gabriella, 15, and Audriana, 10 — were both indicted in 2013 when they were accused of hiding their fortune in a bankruptcy filing. Joe, 47, was also accused of failing to file tax returns between 2004 and 2008.
The mom of four was released from federal prison in 2015 after serving 11 months of a 15-month sentence for fraud. Her husband started his prison sentence immediately afterward.
In October 2018, an immigration court ruled to deport Joe to his native Italy after his prison sentence.
Even though he has lived in the United States since he was a child, he never obtained American citizenship, and immigrants can be deported if they are convicted of “a crime of moral turpitude” or an “aggravated felony,” according to U.S. law.
After completing his 41-month sentence for mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud in March, Joe has been in ICE custody and was recently moved to the facility in western Pennsylvania that houses immigration detainees.
In May, the Bravo star was given permission to continue living in the U.S. after a stay of removal was granted as he awaits the ruling.
“We are grateful that the court has granted the stay,” the family’s attorney told PEOPLE. “Joe looks forward to continuing this fight to the very end. There is nothing more important to him than returning home to his wife and kids.”
Because Joe has been living in the facility, he has missed out on a lot of major events in the lives of his daughters — something that Teresa recently said she was fearful of.
“If he gets deported, he’ll never be able to go to their graduation[s], celebrate their birthdays, anything,” the mom of four said in a Bravo Insider video. “He’s going to be missing out on so much.”
“The girls adore their father and no child should have to go through what my daughters are going through,” she continued. “They should have their daddy here.”
“When you’re a mom and your children are hurting, it just kills you so much,” Teresa added. “If I could take any of this pain away from them, I wish I could.”
