Jubilee Shalom, such a beautiful name given by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar to their tiny miscarried daughter.
Yesterday the Duggars held a private memorial service for Jubilee, who doctors discovered during a routine ultrasound on December 8 had passed away at the age of five gestational months. The service was reportedly attended “by hundreds.”
As the Duggars have upheld the sanctity of human life through bearing 19 living children, they upheld the sanctity of preborn human life by holding a service to grieve Jubilee’s death. Said Jim Bob during the service:
We won’t see this child’s life and the phases that we’ve seen for our other children, but we know we will see this child in heaven one day.
We are thankful for each child, and we are blessed to have the children we have here and the ones we will meet someday in heaven.
By “ones” Jim Bob was referring a child Michelle miscarried during her second pregnancy.
For the memorial service the Duggars showed touching photos of their baby. According to People:
The Duggars also contacted the nonprofit organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, which helps families deal with the miscarriage and loss of their babies, to take photos the family could keep and use at the memorial service. Some of those photos have been released without Jim Bob and Michelle’s consent, according to a spokesperson for the family, and were intended for private use only.
Apparently cousin Amy Duggar posted either one or two photos via Twitter that were later taken down.
Of course, it is hard to actually delete something online, and TMZ got hold of the photos and posted them. They are touching and beautiful, and I do wish on one hand the Duggars would release them, but on the other hand I’d think it abhorrent if they released photos of a deceased born child. So that’s one way to look at it, I guess.
My post including photos moderator Bethany sent me in 2007 of her miscarried baby, Blessing, remains one of the most read posts here year after year, and we have received many emails saying how much that post helped grieving mothers who had also miscarried, and even abortion-vulnerable mothers who changed their minds after seeing them.
At any rate, Jubilee’s photos have stirred controversy. Even ABC has picked up the story. TheHollyWoodGossip.com attempted to make it all macabre by saying the Duggars “took photos of the corpse,” and “We have not posted it here for obvious reasons.” What would those be? AceShowBiz.com wrote, “[O]ne of the pictures gives a look at the fetal corpse’s tiny feet on the hand of… Michelle Duggar.” Such a strange outlook.
As an aside, some people will be interested to know whether or not Michelle miscarried naturally. According to People:
Advised by her doctor to let the miscarriage occur naturally, Michelle, 45, was being cared for at home by her family.
Following the miscarriage late Sunday night [December 11], Michelle began to feel lightheaded and as a precaution was taken to the hospital, where she was kept for observation, according to a family spokesperson.
We mourn for the Duggar family and pray for healing.
Reprinted with permission from JillStanek.com