Jill Duggar reunited with her cousin Amy King (née Duggar) for some much-needed family time!
Amy, 37, shared details of the fun-filled day with her son, Daxton, and Jill’s three boys, which included painting, a nature walk and games via Instagram on Tuesday, April 16. “We are having so much fun today!” Amy captioned a snap of her son, Daxton, riding through the living room in a toy car. In another snap, Amy showed off the driving course the boys made, panning the camera along the mess and joking that she was going to “mop later.”
Jill, 32, reposted the snap via her own Instagram Stories, adding three blue heart emojis seemingly representing her three sons, Israel, 9, Samuel, 6, and Freddy, 21 months.
The family reunion comes less than one week after Jill and her husband, Derick Dillard, announced the tragic stillbirth of their fourth child, a daughter named Isla Marie Dillard.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the stillbirth of our beautiful baby girl, Isla Marie Dillard,” the Counting On alums wrote in a joint Instagram post on April 13. “Jill was 4 months pregnant (due in August) when we found out that our baby died in utero. From the moment we found out we were pregnant, we couldn’t wait to meet our baby. Isla was much loved from the start, and her 3 big brothers were so excited to introduce her to their world.”
The couple, who wed in 2014, also included a photo of themselves holding pink newborn clothing as they mourned the loss of their baby girl. “We appreciate your prayers as we continue to grieve and heal from the loss of our little Isla Marie,” the message concluded.
Jill and Derick, 35, had not publicly announced the pregnancy news prior to the stillbirth. Jill also miscarried a baby named River in 2021 and opened up about her fears about not being able to have as many children as she originally thought she would in her book, Counting the Cost. After her memoir was released in September 2023, Jill recalled a conversation with her dad, Jim Bob Duggar, where she opened up to the patriarch about the subject.
“My dad pipes up, ‘We don’t really know, do we now?’ He’s trying to control the situation,” she explained on Christy Carlson Romano‘s “Vulnerable” podcast in October 2023. Derick chimed in, “This idea still that he was a gatekeeper for our information. ‘We don’t know that yet. Let’s be careful what we say to other people.’”
Derick also mentioned the “toxic” hierarchy in the Insitute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) religion, where you’re seen as “less if you have less kids.”
“But even your parents have said, ‘Whoever has the most kids gets the house,’” he continued. However, Jill emphasized that her mom, Michelle Duggar, and dad, 58, were “half-joking.”
“In the book, I talk about the shift of going from feeling that pressure, being OK with having a lot of children, in that belief system that I grew up in,” the mom of three said. “To then having the shift of being like, ‘Do I trust in God with the number of children that I’m supposed to have?’ could also mean trusting Him if he doesn’t give us 20 kids.”
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