It’s been an eventful year in the lives of the Duggars – but we guess in a family of 21, every year is eventful.
2016 concluded with Jinger Duggar getting married, and despite the fact that there have been two births, a health scare, and about a dozen mini-scandals in the months since, Counting On producers are still painstakingly rehashing every detail of Jinger’s wedding.
Even though the focus on Jinger’s nuptials appears to have contributed to a plunge in Counting On’s ratings, it seems the show won’t be changing course any time soon.
On last night’s episode, we finally got to see Jinger’s wedding in its entirety, and the feeling on social media was that fans found the whole thing a bit anti-climactic.
(It’s hard to blame them, considering just about every detail of the ceremony was revealed several months ago when it took place.)
However, while the episode didn’t offer much in the way of surprises, there were still some touching moments, such as when Jessa Duggar paid tribute to her newlywed younger sister:
Jessa began by revealing that she was “probably not the best influence” growing up (It’s anyone’s guess as to what constitutes mischief in the Duggar compound. Failure to properly memorize a psalm?), and says later in life it was Jinger who influenced her:
“But once you started to get a little bit older you encouraged me to do the right thing,” Jessa said.
“Even though you’re younger than me,” she added, “I’ve always thought of you as one of my greatest role models.”
While most of the tears were the result of profound joy, Jessa admitted to struggling with mixed emotions as a result of her sister’s plans to relocate from Arkansas to Laredo, Texas.
“I think it’s starting to sink in more and more how much we’re going to miss Jinger when she moves away,” the teary-eyed mother of two remarked at one point.
“I don’t think we fully calculated all the ramifications of how it was going to play out that you were going take her 12 hours away from us.”
For as much as she anticipated becoming a Vuolo, Jinger seemed to struggle with the reality of leaving home for the first time as well.
“Give us a couple months, and then come visit us,” Jinger told her sister, as she began to tear up herself.
Sounds like some difficult times lie ahead for the Duggars.
But on the bright side, at leas fans can finally look forward to a new storyline!
