PHOTOSJoy-Anna Duggar Opens Up About How She Felt Hanging Out With Pregnant Sisters After Miscarriage
Nov. 6 2019, Updated 6:00 p.m. ET
Joy-Anna Duggar was expecting a baby girl this fall along with her sisters, Kendra, Abbie, Lauren, and Anna and her cousin Amy. The Counting On star suffered a miscarriage in June and recently opened up about how it’s been being around her pregnant siblings.
“I thought it was going to be a lot harder being around them because there are three sisters Kendra, Anna and Lauren that are due the same time I was,” Joy-Anna, 22, told Us Weekly. The Counting On star was due in November.
She continued, “But I was praying that the Lord would help me be excited for them. And I can honestly say that I’m super excited for them. But I try and ask them a lot how they’re doing, how they’re feeling because this is an exciting time. They have little blessings that they’re adding to their family.”
Although she’s happy for her siblings, Joy-Anna admitted that she’s anxious to actually meet their little ones. “Meeting the babies, I feel like that may be hard. But it’s not like I’m upset that I’ve lost my baby. I still am excited for them,” she said. “But you think, ‘What would my baby look like? What would she be like?’”
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Joy-Anna’s pregnancy photoshoot with Kendra, 21, Anna, 31, Abbie, 27, Lauren, 20, and Jessa, who just gave birth to her daughter, was filmed for the recent season of Counting On. “So thankful to have these pictures from the photoshoot back in June with all the pregnant sisters,” Joy-Anna shared on Instagram on November 1. “I couldn’t have known at the time what these memories would mean to me now.”
“While we grieve over the loss of our baby girl who would’ve been due in just 8 days, we are grateful for the time we had with her,” she said. “We are thankful for memories like these. We are thankful for the precious hours we were able to hold her in our arms and say our goodbyes. We are thankful that God allowed us to be her parents, and we know that her life—though it was brief—has changed our lives forever.”
Joy-Anna added, “And at the same time, we want others to know that the loss we feel does not negate the true joy and expectation we feel as we await the arrival of sisters’ and friends’ babies. There are lots of little nieces on the way, and we couldn’t be more excited! Kendra, Lauren and Anna are due this month, and Abbie is due in January! It’s a strange dichotomy.”
