Duggar joy: Parents of 18 now grandparents of 1

The first Duggar grandchild arrived Thursday night with her proud grandmother, Michelle Duggar, helping daughter-in-law Anna Duggar with the birth.

Mackynzie Renee Duggar checked in at an even 8 pounds and 19½ inches. Exclusive video of the birth was shown on TODAY Friday, and Mackynzie, her parents and the entire Duggar clan will be on TODAY Monday to talk about the newest member of America’s most famous superfamily.

Love at first sight
The birth comes a little more than a year after Josh Duggar, the eldest of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s 18 children, married his wife, Anna, on Sept. 26, 2008, at the Buford Grove Baptist Church in Hilliard, Fla. The 20-year-olds met at a home schooling conference and reported that it was love at first sight.

After a period of supervised courtship, in which they were allowed to hold hands but not to kiss, the couple decided to get married. The Florida church donated its facilities for the wedding, Anna herself made all the dresses for the bridesmaids, and the Duggars piled into the used bus they’d purchased from a hockey team to drive from their Arkansas home for the ceremony.

At the wedding, which later aired on TLC as part of the reality show “17 Kids and Counting” (now retitled “18 Kids and Counting”), the couple were allowed to kiss for the first time. After their honeymoon, Josh and Anna settled into their own quarters near Josh’s parents; he and Anna now run a used-car dealership.

Mom Anna Duggar called her new arrival Mackynzie Renee, a combination of the name of one of dad Josh’s cousins and Anna’s own middle name.

While the couple were celebrating their wedding, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar announced that they were expecting an 18th Duggar baby. Jordyn-Grace Makiya, the eighth girl in the family, was born by Caesarean section on Dec. 18. This September, the couple announced that No. 19 was on the way and is scheduled to arrive next spring.

An ‘M,’ not a ‘J’
It was at Josh and Anna’s car dealership that Anna took a home pregnancy test and, without looking at it herself, left it in the rest room for her husband to read. Later that day he gave her and the rest of the family the happy news that the test was positive.

On April 13 of this year, when Anna was three months along, the couple announced the pregnancy on TODAY. At the end of July, they returned to TODAY to reveal the baby’s name: Mackynzie Renee. The name is a combination of the name of one of Josh’s cousins and Anna’s middle name. The couple have not said whether they will give all of their children names beginning with “M.” All of Jim Bob and Michelle’s children have names beginning with “J.”

The first Duggar grandchild came into the world weighing an even 8 pounds and measuring 19½ inches.

Michelle has said that having a grandchild older than one of her own children won’t be strange, as she grew up in a big family in which she had aunts who were the same age as she.

‘Be fruitful and mulitply’
The Duggars are devout Christians who take the biblical advice to be fruitful and multiply literally. They are part of the QuiverFull movement, which holds that couples should have as many children “as God gives them.”

Slideshow Images: The Duggar bunch The more the merrier! Meet the members of one (really) big, happy family.

On their Web page, Josh and Anna write: “We look forward to the blessing of children as stated in the Psalms, ‘Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.’ (Psalms 127:3) Having both been raised in large families, we have agreed to trust God in the area of children and the size of it.”

In January, Josh told People magazine, “I would welcome a big family. My parents have been wonderful examples.”

Anna, who grew up in a family of eight children in Florida, added, “I would love to have as many children as God would bless us with. Growing up in a large family, and Joshua in a mega-family, you learn so much more. I think a large family helps you prepare for life.”

For more on the Duggars and Josh and Anna’s new baby, watch the “First Duggar” special Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 9 p.m. (ET) on TLC and visit TLC.com.

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