Woman pregnant with 18th child
May 9, 2008 -- It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman — she's pregnant with her 18th child.
By JILL ZEMAN
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. _ It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman — she's pregnant with her 18th child.
Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.
"We've had three in January, three in December. Those two months are a busy time for us," she said, laughing.
The Duggars' oldest child, Josh, is 20, and the youngest, Jennifer, is nine months old.
The fast-growing family lives in Tontitown in northwest Arkansas in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children — whose names start with the letter J — are home-schooled.
Duggar has been been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life, and the family is in the process of filming another series for Discovery Health.
The new show looks at life inside the Duggar home, where chores — or "jurisdictions" — are assigned to each child. One episode of the new show involves a "jurisdiction swap," where the boys do chores traditionally assigned to the girls, and vice versa, Duggar said.
"The girls swapped jurisdictions, changing tires, working in the garages, mowing the grass," she said. "The boys got to cook supper from start to finish, clean the bathrooms," among other chores.
Duggar said she's six weeks along and the pregnancy is going well. She and her husband, Jim Bob Duggar, said they'll keep having children as long as God wills it.
"The success in a family is first off, a love for God, and secondly, treating each other like you want to be treated," Jim Bob Duggar said. "Our goal is for each one of our children to be best friends, and everybody working together to serve each other makes that happen."
The other Duggar children, in between Joshua and Jennifer, are Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 16; Jessa, 15; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 10; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 7; James, 6; Justin, 5; Jackson, 3; and Johannah, 2.
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On the Net:
Duggar family Web site: www.duggarfamily.com
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Woman pregnant with 18th child
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View All Comments »Stradia at 05/13/2008 9:27:25 AM
Comment:
I think this story and this family are blessed. I have no knowledge of the Tv coverage this family has received, but it really doesn't matter as long as they are raising healthy children and lteaching them the right things. I know several families, including my wife's that have a lot of children (12) and it take a special kind of husband and wife to raise them well. This family is not struggling and appear to be very good providers, so why the hate? If some of the readers don't like large families, then that's okay. It's certainly not for everybody.
She is raising up an army of soldiers and servants for the Lord!! And homeschooling them. Two baseball teams of kids. Awesome!!
Diane Briggs at 05/12/2008 1:51:59 PM
Comment:
Dear Love,
Please refrain from making such blatant stereotypical statements, not only are all black women not over sexed harlots running from one bed to the next, they can and do have all their children from one man with out government assistance. I grew up with two families in my neighbor hood with 10+ children ALL from the same man and ALL-raised by a two parent family. Please do not become a mouth piece for a racist media, who would have you believe the worst about African Americans.
Diane Briggs at 05/12/2008 1:47:41 PM
Comment:
Dear Love,
Please refrain from making such blatanlt strerotypical statments, not ony are all black women not over sexed harlots running from one bed to the next, they can and do have all their children from one man. I grew up with two families in my neighbor hood with 10+ chilren ALL .from the same man and ALLraised by a two parent family. Please do not become a mouth piece for a racist media, who would have you beleive the worst about African Americans.