Jinger Duggar is sharing an honest message about the ups and downs of life after looking back at her strict upbringing.
“I’m cherishing these moments!” the former 19 Kids and Counting star, 30, captioned a carousel of family photos with husband Jeremy Vuolo and their daughters, Felicity, 5, and Evangeline, 3, via Instagram on Thursday, June 13.
“Life isn’t always easy. Our journey through life is filled with both joy and sorrow. We find peace through it all when we rest in our sovereign God,” she continued. “He has promised that he will never leave us or forsake us. So let’s find joy in that reality and thank God for the blessings He’s given us today.”
Duggar’s note comes after she and Vuolo, 36, appeared on the Wednesday, June 12, episode of the “Unplanned” podcast.
The Duggars: A Comprehensive Guide to the Famous Family
The duo covered a wide variety of topics during their episode, including Duggar’s upbringing in the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP) religion, her strained relationship with parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, her time on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting On and more.
“I’m grateful for my childhood. It was not perfect. I shared a lot of difficulties that I struggled with throughout my childhood, but at the end of the day, I’m grateful for my parents,” she told cohosts Matt and Abby Howard. “I love them, we have differences, everything’s not perfect between us, but I think that at the end of the day, I love them and I know that they know that.”
The Becoming Free Indeed author also opened up about growing up in a large family on national TV, revealing that she was scared that she was destined to one day have as many kids as her parents.
“That was something that I was always kind of a little bit afraid of,” Duggar explained. “I was never the one who was like, ‘Give me your kids. I’m gonna go babysit your kids for you.’ Some of my siblings are more geared that way. They’re all about watching everyone’s kids, holding their kids.”
The TLC alum went on to say that she would volunteer to do chores, like laundry and grocery shopping, instead of helping raise her siblings. Duggar noted, however, that she always knew she wanted to be a mom one day – but on her terms.
“I just was really afraid of the thought of having as many [kids] as possible, but that was my destiny. That was gonna be it. I was gonna get married and have a lot of kids,” she said. “Even on the show, if you watch those shows, I’m sure I probably said multiple times, ‘I’m just gonna have as many kids as possible.’ I just say it over and over. But I was afraid. I was so afraid.”
Duggar Family: Meet the Next Generation
Once she realized she was in control over her family plans, Duggar said she felt a “massive weight” lifted from her shoulders.
“I think it can be a sweeter situation where they’re coming in when you’re like, ‘Oh, we’d love to have a kid now, let’s have a kid,’” she said of welcoming a child. “Instead of the burden of kid after kid.”
19 Kids and Counting premiered on TLC in 2008 and ran for 10 seasons until 2015. The series was canceled following reports that eldest child Josh Duggar molested five girls in 2002 and 2003, including some of his sisters.
Everything Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar Have Said About Son Josh’s Scandal
Following the show’s cancellation, Counting On – a spinoff that primarily followed the lives of the older Duggar children, including Jill Dillard, Jessa Seawald and Joy-Anna Forsyth – premiered on TLC in December 2015.
Duggar and Vuolo, who wed in 2016, starred on the show until 2020. The series was ultimately canceled in 2021 in the wake of Josh’s child pornography scandal. He was charged with two counts of receiving and possessing child pornography in December 2021 and was sentenced to a little over 12 years in prison.
