Joy-Anna Duggar ‘broke down crying’ when she learned she had a heartbreaking miscarriage at 20-weeks pregnant
Joy-Anna Duggar opened up about learning of her miscarriage while 20 weeks pregnant, recalling that she "broke down crying" during the season 11 premiere of Counting On.
The premiere was full of baby news and also featured John and Abbie Duggar's gender reveal party.
Joy-Anna, 22, and husband Austin Forysth, 26, spoke about their miscarriage with baby Annabell Elise.
Reflecting on how they learned the tragic news, Joy-Anna said: "Austin and I decided we wanted to go in for our 20 week ultrasound to find out the gender and laid out the bed and she was going to tell us the gender and she was like, 'I don't hear a heartbeat' and she was like, 'See, there's your baby's heart' and no heartbeat.
"And at first I was like, 'Oh, is your monitor messed up or whatever?' But then I realized what she was telling us and I was just devastated. I broke down crying."
added: "At that moment, you're like 'Is this really happening? Something must be wrong.' It's pretty hard."
After losing the baby, .
Austin recalled: "I just kept thinking, 'I want my wife to be okay. I want her to make it through this,' so when we had the baby it was just such a relief that Joy got through it fine and just that, I think, we could start the grieving process and start healing and getting through life."
The couple also opened up about the inspiration behind their unborn child's name.
Joy-Anna explained: "It wasn't until right before we left the hospital that we finally decided on a name.
"We had been looking at a lot of different names and Annabell was one that really stuck out to me. It used to be kind of a nickname of mine when I was younger- friends would just call me that. And so I thought that would be really sweet and the meaning means 'God has favored me.'
"And then Elise just went really well with that."
The couple, who married in 2017, also explained their decision to bury Annabell at Fort Rock "because a lot of our special things happened out there.
"We got engaged, we started dating out there, so after having Annabell, we buried her out at Fort Rock."
During the episode, Austin and Joy-Anna placed a headstone where they buried Annabell and planted a tree to "watch her grow."
wife Lauren, 21, said that she's been helping Joy-Anna through the difficult time because she also went through a miscarriage.
Lauren said: "It's nice to know that someone's praying and thinking of you."
Who are the Duggars and why are they famous?
THE Duggars are a religious family who gained popularity after they were featured on 19 Kids and Counting.
The show debuted in
The Duggars avoid birth control, saying they have decided to allow God to determine the number of children they have.
All of the children are homeschooled, and access to entertainment such as movies and television is limited.
They practice chaperoned courtship, in which a couple becomes acquainted only in a group setting.
There are 21 Duggars in total.
added that placing the headstone and planting the tree "brought even more closure for me and just knowing that our family is able to move on.
"Yes, it's hard but I think we'll get through it."
The season premiere concluded with John, 30, and Abbie, 28, hosting a gender reveal party.
The couple joked that coming up with an original gender reveal idea was hard because their family had done so many.
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, 27, added: "You go online and you search gender reveal ideas and you go, 'Done that, done that, done that.'"
John and Abbie revealed the gender with flight "boarding passes" and had guests take a blue or pink pass based on the gender they think they'd have.
Jeremiah, 21, participated in the reveal by flying a plane with a code that announced the child's gender, which is a girl.
Abbie said: "We both kind of just hoped it would be a girl. I'm a girly girl."
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