Michelle Duggar has taken to her blog to share her feelings about her daughters' major life changes.
The 19 Kids & Counting matriarch said she is having "wonderful mixed emotions" about Jill's pregnancy and Jessa's engagement. Jill is the second-eldest daughter, and is expecting her first child with husband Derick Dillard in March 2015. Jessa is the third-eldest, and recently got engaged to Ben Seewald.
"Our entire lives, we've worked toward this, prayed about it and encouraged our children to focus on becoming the person that God wants them to be," Michelle wrote of herself and husband Jim Bob. "We've always urged our children to wait for the one that God has for them, and not to make compromises in their life in any way."
"On the other side is the sadness that everything is changing at home. It's good, not bad, yet change is sometimes hard," she continued. "Jim Bob is so excited, too, for Derick and Jill, and for Ben and Jessa. When he talks about the girls getting married, he gets a little teary-eyed; it's a big deal for a dad to let go of his girls."
Michelle finds it a "joy" to watch her daughters' "loving relationship[s]" unfold, and said the couples "are becoming best friends and really getting to know each other in such a sweet way." She called the experience "so exciting, shocking and surprising all at the same time," and is confident her daughters have found "the right one."
Michelle, Jim Bob and their children currently star on TLC reality series 19 Kids & Counting, and first came to fame when the series debuted as 17 Kids & Counting in 2008. The Duggars are fundamentalist Baptists, and have 19 children whose ages range from 4 to 26.