In celebration of their 32nd wedding anniversary, TV personality Jim Bob Duggar wrote a lengthy letter that offered details of his marriage to Michelle.
After exchanging wedding vows, the Duggar patriarch shared that he and his wife decided to not immediately have a baby. During the first few years of their marriage, Michelle made use of birth control but later on planned to get off the pill.
While she easily got pregnant after, the couple suffered a miscarriage and lost who could have been their first child. After the unfortunate incident, the Duggars decided to permanently remove birth control pills and welcomed every baby Michelle gave birth to in the following years.
"Believe it or not, when we first got married we decided we did not want to have children right away, so Michelle began taking birth control pills,” Jim Bob wrote. “Three years into our marriage Michelle went off the pill and we had our first child. Then she went back on the pill, because we heard it was better to space your children out, but Michelle got pregnant while she was on the pill, and the pill caused her to miscarry. We talked to a Christian doctor and he explained that the pill could be abortive.”
After such an unhappy time in their marriage, Jim Bob and Michelle became more religious and has practiced consistency in demonstrating their Christian faith.
"We were so grieved, because of our own lack of knowledge; we had lost our second child. We read several passages in the Bible, like Psalms 127 that says children are a blessing and a gift from God. Here we had rejected God's gift and told Him we only wanted to receive them on our timetable,” Jim Bob further stated.
The former politician also opened up about asking forgiveness and offering his life to the Lord.
“We asked God to forgive us, and we told God we want to follow him with our lives and receive any blessings He wants to send our way," he added.
When Michelle, whose maiden name is Ruark, first met Jim Bob, the couple did not necessarily go through the strict dating guidelines they have set for their own children. The Duggar kids are not allowed to hold hands while dating someone until they are engaged. The first kiss should also be done on the wedding day itself.
Towards the concluding line in his anniversary post, Jim Bob joked about the possibility of having 200 grandchildren. At present, they have six from Josh, Jill and Jessa.
"I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you and with our 6, going on 200 grandkids and counting!" he said.
Josh and his wife Anna have four children while sister Jill Duggar and her husband Derick Dillard are currently raising a one-year-old son, Israel, who was born in April 2015. Moreover, Jessa and her husband Ben Seewald also welcomed their son, Spurgeon Elliot, in November 2015.
Another daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle will also be making her marriage vows soon as Jinger Duggar and her beau Jeremy Vuolo officially announced their engagement after one month of courting.
