Joy-Anna Duggar is engaged to be married!
The fifth oldest daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle will be walking down the aisle with Austin Forsyth after a VERY short courtship, she confirms.
“We just got engaged!” Joy-Anna, 19, announced.
“I’m so excited to be engaged to my best friend.”
“Austin made it so romantic, it’s amazing.”
Forsyth tells Us that he is looking forward to their engagement, their marriage and all the big relationship milestones that lie ahead.
“I’m just overwhelmed with emotion,” he says.
“I’m so excited to be engaged because that means the next step is marriage, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for us!”
The near future, apparently. We predicted earlier this week that Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth were on the fast track, but this?!
Duggar and family friend Forsyth, who have known each other for 15 years, announced on November 15 that they had started courting.
Once Austin got the green light from Jim Bob, which you saw if you watch Counting On online, he was prepared to pop the question.
The courtship question, that is. Not the marriage one, which he put off a solid couple of months (no word yet on where he proposed).
If his previous romantic gestures are any indication, though …
Austin chose a spot in a wooded area to ask Joy-Anna to enter into the courtship – a pre-engagement of sorts, in Duggar family parlance.
“It’s a place that I’ve come many times to just get away and spend time with the Lord,” he said at that time about the special location.
“I just knew that this was the place that I wanted to ask her.”
Asking her dad if he could court Joy, Austin gushed:
“Over the years, I’ve been watching, and I really admire her heart for the Lord and her character. She’s such a diligent worker.”
“She gets all the younger siblings working. She’s a good delegator,” he said, awkwardly, when asked by Jim Bob why he’s into Joy.
“And, of course, her beauty.”
Of course. While reports of Austin and Joy having sex are most likely exaggerated, we’re also sure they’re past the side hug stage.
Like Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo before them, there’s been talk of this duo breaking the courtship rules and racing to the altar from day one.
So when’s the wedding?
It’s unclear, but just days ago, Joy-Anna opened up to People magazine about the possibility of saying “I do” in the near future.
“I’m not sure when the next step will come,” Joy said.
“You would have to ask Austin what he’s thinking and my dad, but I’m excited to see what God has in store for us in the next year.”
Clearly she had a handle on her romantic future.
At 19, Joy-Anna will be the youngest bride in her generation of Duggars, but it seems she has zero qualms will taking the leap.
“For Austin and Joy it probably won’t be super long just because they’ve known each other for forever,” her sister Jessa Duggar said.
“There’s kind of a get-to-know you phase, [but] at the same time, we know so much about Austin and his family and we know that he’s a great guy.”
So, there you have it, folks.
Once again, these Duggar folks move at a breakneck pace once they find someone, and perhaps that’s not altogether (or at all) surprising.
Each seems to move faster and faster, either by coincidence or because the notion of long-term side hugs and chaperones is unmoving.
As for the two new Duggar courtships we’ve been hearing whispers about – regarding the guys, for a change – still no word on those.
Congrats to Joy-Anna!!