On the day before Thanksgiving, November 27, the Duggar family grew by one. As she revealed on Instagram, Anna Duggar, who is married to the eldest Duggar sibling, Josh, gave birth to their sixth child.
In a sweet Instagram post shared on Thanksgiving day, Anna shared a photo of her baby girl, whom they named Maryella Hope Duggar. Maryella weighed eight pounds, two ounces and measured 20-and-a-half inches long at birth.
Anna Duggar Welcomes Sixth Child, Shares Story Behind Name
Anna wrote about the arrival of their sixth child, “Maryella Hope arrived one day ahead of Thanksgiving Day 2019 and a great reminder to be grateful for all God has done for us! We are so excited and thankful to God for His special blessing giving us this precious, happy, and healthy baby girl!”
The proud and grateful mom also shared multiple black-and-white photos of their newest bundle of joy, revealing Maryella’s budding personality. Then, several days after Maryella’s arrival, Anna took to Instagram again to reveal how they decided on her name.
Anna explained that “soon after we found out baby #6 was a girl, we began discussing name ideas and we thought we had it narrowed down.” However, after the family’s grandmother Mary Duggar unexpectedly passed away in a drowning incident in June, they started to consider naming their unborn daughter Mary.
“But we were hesitant because Grandma (Mary Duggar) was such a special lady and we wanted our daughter’s name to be a reminder of how special Grandma was and carry on her legacy, but without feeling like we were trying to replace her. Soon, our baby name list that we had narrowed down to 3 names had grown to a list of about a dozen Mary-hyphenated names.”
Eventually, both Anna and Josh fell in love with the name Maryella. “We chose Hope for her middle name because of the Hope we have because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.” Anna continued:
“Jesus is the ultimate demonstration of love and hope. Jesus laid down His sinless life on the cross so we could be forgiven of our sins and one day live with Him in heaven forever when we die. We have Hope because of Christ! During Maryella’s pregnancy, there were so many unexpected joys, which included several more pregnancy announcements from family members! We also grieved alongside those we love the most, remembering life is fragile and sometimes very short. Even through the grief of the loss of loved ones we know that we have comfort, hope, and strength as we look forward to one day being reunited in heaven with Jesus and our loved ones who are waiting for us there!”
In 2019, the patriarch and matriarch of the Duggar family, Jim Bob and Michelle, became grandparents four times after their daughter Jessa, and their daughters-in-law, Lauren, Kendra, and Anna all welcomed baby girls into the world.
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Their cousin, Amy Duggar King, also welcomed a son into the world. And Abbie Duggar is set to welcome her baby girl in January 2020.
And like Anna said on Instagram, the Duggar family also experienced grief in 2019 with the loss of their grandmother and Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth‘s unexpected stillbirth in June.
Now only time will tell what the new year will bring to this quickly growing family.
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