What did Jill & Jessa: Counting On Season 2 Episode 1, the first chapter of the 19 Kids & Counting offshoot’s first full season, have in store?
What didn’t we learn is the real question …
Those who watch Jill & Jessa: Counting On online will not be surprised by a bunch of the revelations, while others were more enlightening.
Tuesday’s season premiere focused heavily on the younger generation, especially the titular Jill Dillard and Jessa Duggar, of course.
When things got underway last night, we got an update on Jessa Duggar and Ben Seewald’s baby boy Spurgeon, born last November.
“I was expecting labor to be long and hard, and it was longer and harder than I expected,” Jessa said, smiling (Jill knows the feeling).
“The ending was a little bit frightening, yeah, but I’m happy it’s over, and I’m happy that we have our little baby boy now,” Ben added.
Ben explained Spurgeon’s name and his penchant for diaper duty, while the new family took part in a photo shoot with Jinger Duggar.
Instead of payment for her photography services, “I said, ‘You take my pictures, and I’ll match-make you with somebody,"” Jessa revealed.
Should Jinger take her up on that? Says Jessa: “I’m a terrible matchmaker, by the way. Nobody likes my ideas. It’s kind of sad. It really is.”
“I’ve asked John, and he always tells me, ‘There are more girls in the world than you know about,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m just trying to help!"”
For their part, for all the controversies they unwittingly start online, Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard seemed to be loving life as missionaries.
Despite fears of the Zika virus and cougars next door (the animal kind, not the Kourtney Kardashian kind), they’re doing great apparently.
As for the family member we’re most curious about by far?
When we caught up with Josh Duggar’s maligned wife, Anna Duggar, she was preparing to visit him up in a Christian sex rehab center.
We finally got to hear her speak on his infamous sex scandals, too. “it was just feeling like your world instantly shattered,” she lamented.
“He had accounts set up on websites that were set up specifically for having an affair and cheating on your spouse, and …”
“How? Where? Why?” Anna added, emotionally. “Just all of those questions running through your mind. It was overwhelming.”
How is she coping with his rehab stint, which recently came to an end?
“We felt that something long-term would be helpful and probably the best situation for our family,” Anna said, but it hasn’t been easy.
“It’s been good for our hearts for this time for each of us to get help separately, but it’s also been hard. Meredith was a month old.”
“Now she’s almost four months old. At the end of the day, I think about all of the fun and the special events that happened that day.”
“It’s really sweet, but different. I’m thinking about it by myself.”
“Normally that would be when Josh and I were talking about [the day], and so it is hard that we miss it, and aren’t able to enjoy life together.”
Though she was excited to see Josh – now out of rehab and home in Arkansas after more than six months away – she was nervous.
“I’m coming face-to-face with a lot of painful memories,” she sighed, adding that she planned on just taking everything a step at a time.
We didn’t see their reunion, but she did speak on it later.
“I just got back from visiting Joshua, and he loves each one of you guys very much and is just really grateful,” Anna told his siblings.
“Grateful for a family that’s willing to talk straight and to grieve when you’ve fallen, but also to love and forgive and have hope.”
“So I look forward to seeing what God has in the future.”
While the family was fairly supportive, John-David still had his reservations … the Duggars forgive Josh but they don’t trust him.
“I still love my brother and still talk to him on a regular basis, but things have definitely changed, some within the relationship,” he said.
Anna, though, was undeterred as far as salvaging her marriage.
“This visit was great because it definitely gives a lot of hope, but I think also the weight of everything is also there,” she reflected.
“It drives me deeper to my faith. God’s grace can give me the strength to love Josh when others would say he doesn’t deserve it.”
On z final, unrelated note … we heart Jana Duggar so hard.
