Joy-Anna Duggar Shares Her Children’s Response to the Pregnancy Announcement
Expecting mother Joy-Anna Duggar is already excited to see how her older children will bond with their new sibling.
“They are going to be the most wonderful big siblings,” Duggar, 28, shared on Instagram on Thursday, September 3, while posting a video of the moment she revealed her pregnancy to her sons Gideon, 8, and Gunner, 3, and daughter Evelyn, 5.
The Counting On star added, “They have been praying for a baby brother or sister for quite some time, and ever since we found out, they can’t stop talking about their baby.”
In a heartfelt family video, Duggar and her husband Austin Forsyth shared the pregnancy announcement with Gideon, Evelyn, and Gunner during a car ride.
“Remember how Mama and Papa said that if we want a new baby, we need to ask God for one?” Duggar told her children in the video. “Well, God answered our prayers.”
Gideon and Evelyn immediately laughed and inquired whether the new addition would be a boy or a girl.
“We don’t know yet,” Duggar replied, noting that she hasn’t learned the baby’s sex. “I have a baby growing in my belly right now.”
Forsyth, 32, added, “If the Lord allows, we’re excited for another baby.”
Before welcoming their three children, Duggar experienced a pregnancy loss in 2019. (The former TLC star lost the baby at 20 weeks and had to be induced to deliver her daughter’s remains, naming her late daughter Annabell.)
“It was incredibly difficult. Initially, I thought, ‘I’ll be strong and push through this,’” Joy-Anna shared on the Wednesday, September 2, episode of her sister Jinger Duggar’s podcast while discussing her loss. “But once everything settled in and I had to adjust to a new normal, it became really challenging.”
She continued, “I had to navigate through many tough emotions, and in some ways, I was unsure how to deal with it. I didn’t want to become bitter and linger in the past; instead, I wanted to heal and move forward. It felt like I was in a tunnel with no light at the end.”
Joy-Anna further shared that the heaviness of her grief began to ease after six months.
“True joy comes from the Lord, and I believe my children bring little bits of happiness during the dark times,” she reflected. “Finding joy in those challenging moments is tough.”
Joy-Anna is one of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s 19 children, who gained fame through their reality shows 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On.
