The lovely, thorough, and ASTOUNDING story Part THREEEEE

I lied. Please forgive me. This is not the final part. There are just too many savory Duggar details and glorious reflection that has to happen for me to accurately portray how I felt and the actuality of how this went down. And I don't want to forget a moment as this experience is already fading into oblivion with each day that passes. It's becoming a heavenly, yet foggy haze of a dream now and it's taking lots of thought and concentration to accurately remember the details. And I have to get up at 6 am central time tomorrow to catch a plane home. So that means that it probably won't be till Wednesday when I can finish. I'm so sorry. Thanks for bearing with me.


He is just as handsome and put together in person as on TV, if not more so!

As I walked toward the door holding Nathanael on my hip he smiled and said, "Hi there! I'm Jim Bob. Come on in! Hey there guys. (smiling and talking to my boys) What's your name? (talking to Hunter) Teri's interpreted Duggar translasion: We truly love children.
"Uhhhh....Hunter"
"Joshua Hunter" my Josh added. "And this is Nathanael." All of this as we were walking in the house.

Somebody pinch me...poke me....smack me...ANYTHING because I must surely be DREAMING with each step I take into this Duggar eutopia!!

As we walked in the house again, I was struck by how much smaller it looked in person than on TV. Don't get me wrong, it's still stinkin' HUGE! 7,000 square feet of debt-free Duggar sweat and steel. And..there were probably about around 10 people in the main living area right as we walked in with ooodles of space to spare. But I guess the camera angles really trick you as you watch on TV, because it's just so much smaller scale when you see it in person.

I immediately noticed that there was a lot more stuff around than I've ever seen the house have on TV. Not dirty or slobby by any means. Just LOTS more stuff around. It was as if Mr. Duggar read my mind as he said, "Please forgive the appearance of the house. We just got back yesterday from a 2 month road trip." HOLY COW! Thank you God, for your perfect, divine intervention with this detail because had I found those directions on the way down to Hot Springs I would have totally missed this. "Please..." I said. "We're in the same boat being on our vacation right now" And...thank heavens you did NOT see the 2 foot high sea of junk covering my mom's minivan floor that we're traveling in right now, Mr. Duggar...because I would have died!

He continued to explain, "We were all over in the east. Tennesee. Ohio. D.C."
"Wow," we said.
"I don't know if you know the Bates family from the show," he said. Ummmmmm....of COURSE I know the Bates fam, Mr. Duggar!!!! I've only witnessed EVERY SINGLE television moment of your family for the past 5 years. Some moments MULTIPLE times! And EVERYBODY knows that the Bates are your fam's B.F.F.'s.
"Sure!" I said.
"Well, they're buidling a house right now and we're helping them out with that. As a matter of fact, we left some of our older boys back in Tennessee to help them out. " Josh and I continued to nod and listen in awe. "And I had a class reunion with some friends in Ohio."

As he was talking I was taking mental note of every detail of their house that I, of course, already knew. Yep...the styrofoam cup dispenser is right in the wall where it should be next to the fountain drink machine. Yep...the long dining room table is on my left side, right where it should be. Yep....the gently winding staircase is right behind Mr. Duggar as he's talking to us. Yep....there's JANA AND JILL IN THE FLESH behind the kitchen counter doing dishes or something!!!! Yep...there's sweet little Johannah and Jennifer bopping around the house with their pacifiers. But...I sure don't remember that plant behind me to the right of the door that Nathanael will NOT stop trying to pull the leaves off of!!! I can't flick him and shout, "NO!!!" right here in front of Mr. Duggar!!! Oh...mercy, sweet Duggars. Thank goodness we're here for your Godly parenting expertise to seep into our brains by heavenly osmosis just by being in your presence!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!

And...I also didn't recognize a few of the adult faces that were sitting in the living room couches as they continued their conversation despite our odd presence, but kept looking over in curiosity at we listened to Mr. Duggar graciously talk to us.

"Now, I'm sorry. I what was your name again?" he asked us. "Josh Pence" "And I'm Teri Pence." I began my very sincere schpeel: "Thank you so much Mr. Duggar for being so gracious to let us do this. I cannot tell you how much your family means to me. Your family has blessed us so much and I just didn't want to miss this opportunity to let you know that. Especially your wife. Oh my...I think of her example so often as I'm parenting my boys. And she is truly a woman that displays such a biblical, gentle and quiet spirit." As I'm saying this he's nodding and smiling and saying "Awww..thank you" here and there and, "That's so sweet of you to say that." Teri's interpreted Duggar translasion: We do NOT have big heads and are truly humbled when people tell us that they see God's glory in us. I continued. "I know that I don't know her in person but I truly see her as a mentor in my life. She is so patient and kind with her children and I just love her."

So then he says, "Well listen, I called for Michelle as you were walking up and she's not down here yet. I'm not sure where she's gone off to. Let me see if we can try to get her down here. " "Oh no, no no!! That's okay." Josh and I say. "We're gonna go ahead and go...we just wanted to let you know-" "No. Really," he said. "Let me see if I can try her again. Girls, have you seen momma?" he asked Jana and Jill. "By the way, these are my daughters Jana and Jill." They nod in our direction and smile. They are soo pretty!!!! Mr. Duggar then walks over to the intercom phone right next to the styrofoam cup holders and picks it up. "Michelle, could you come down to here for a minute? We have some guests here that I'd like you to meet."

Oh my!! Oh my!! Is it true? Am I really and truly going to meet her? My wonderful, sweet, kind, and always the epitome of Godly feminitity Mrs. Duggar!!!! Oh sweet Lord, this is tooo much. I am soo not worthy of this amazing, motherly encouragement!! What an amazing gift!!!

To be continued...