Courtesy of Jill Duggar/Instagram (2)
Counting On’s Jill Duggar Shares Rare Photo of 3 Sons Freddy, Israel and Samuel: ‘Thankful For Our Boys’
Jill Dillard (née Duggar) delighted fans when she shared a photo of her rarely seen sons, Freddy, Israel and Samuel.
“So thankful for our boys. A brother is a friend given by God,” Jill, 32, captioned an adorable picture of the trio of boys huddling in a circle around a football via Instagram on Wednesday, November 29. “Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.”
In the snap, Israel, 7, Samuel, 5, and Isreal, 1, wore matching light blue denim jeans and crisp, white collared shirts as they lovingly wrapped their arms around each other.
Jill and her husband, Derick Dillard, tied the knot in 2014 and welcomed their first son shortly after in 2015. After welcoming their second son, Samuel, in 2017, the pair suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage, which they spoke about on the Dillard Family blog in October 2021. “They were full of questions and so excited as we talked about the pregnancy and how they would get to be involved along the way and after the baby was born,” they shared, describing sharing the news with their boys. “However, a few days later we started miscarrying.”
The former Counting On alums became parents of three after welcoming Freddy in July 2022.
Jill opened up about her issues with fertility and the pressure she felt to have more kids during a November interview, after first touching on the topic in her September memoir, Counting the Cost.
“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 TLC personality 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.”
Derick sat alongside his wife in the interview and added that Jill’s concerns about having children were one of the many “toxic” aspects of the culture she was raised in. “There’s also a sense of hierarchy that you’re less than if you have less kids,” Derick, stated, adding that Jill’s parents Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar previously told her, “Whoever has the most kids gets the house.”
However, Jill said that her parents were “half-joking” when they made the comment.
The Counting the Cost author explained that she grew concerned about her ability to have children after her son, Samuel, faced health issues following his birth. After Jill sought out a fertility specialist, she recalled telling her dad that she may not be able to have any more kids.
“My Dad pipes up, ‘We don’t really know do we know?‘ He’s trying to control the situation,” Jill explained, while her husband added that Jim Bob’s reaction was “frustrating.”
“This idea still that he was a gatekeeper for our information,” the attorney continued. “We don’t know that yet. Let’s be careful what we say to other people.”
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