Jill, Derick & the Kids: Moving On!!

[subber]

Poor Izzy. Looks like he is suffering diaper leak and staring into the camera as much to plead, "Somebody, please clean me up!" Can't believe they posted a picture of him shirtless and in shorts. Very unDuggarlike.

That 70s style porn stache on Derick looks awful, but it's refreshing to see him doing his own thing. Surprised he lost the scruffy look Jill favored. And he's showing a lot of leg, too. Looks like being out from under the considerable thumb of Boob is having an effect.

[kokapetl]

I never found Derick attractive, but I don't really feel comfortable making fun of someone's appearance. Especially since with these people there are literally hundreds of other reasons to make fun of them. I actually think Derick and Jill look happier where they are than they ever did in America. It's in the eyes; in all the photos they took in Murica they had "photo crazy eyes." You know, that look you get in your eyes when you have to smile in a photo but aren't actually happy. Their eyes look happier wherever they are now. I have no idea why, but I'd speculate it has something to do with being away from the Duggars.

I do agree about the mustache but I've only met one man in my life who can pull off a mustache. I'm not sure I'll ever meet another.

I think Josie picked up Jill's patented fake smile with the raised eyebrows.

Pickles: "SEND MONEY OR I'LL LET GO!!!"

[Defrauder]

Derick looks like a 47 year-old high school calculus teacher. I don't expect him and Jill to be at the top of their game while living in a humid tropical country, but that mustache is all kinds of wrong.

He does! Perfect description 47 year old HS calculus teacher!   He has perfect eyebrows too.   I think a lot of women would like to have those brows.

Well for one I am distracted by his knees.

Oh shit I didn't even notice. Well what do you know he has knees, and what's wrong with me I'm not defrauded by them.  

[Flowers]

Poor Izzy. Looks like he is suffering diaper leak and staring into the camera as much to plead, "Somebody, please clean me up!"

It's a shadow from his arm.

[phoenix62]

Maybes it's a disguise for "security" reasons or something.

He's really aged.

Aw. The little guy is adorable but he's only 4 months old? He looks like he's about a year old there. My son looked smaller when he was 6 months old, haha...

His father isn't too bad looking. I've seen worse, much worse. Looks like he's lost weight, and considering when're they are, wouldn't surprise me.

[DangerousMinds]

They are NOT overseas. I'm sorry, but I just can't let that go.

[Churchhoney]

They are NOT overseas. I'm sorry, but I just can't let that go.

 

 

Izzy's overseas! :  )

[JoanArc]

Derick, save that man behind you! He's contemplating suicide! Use Jesus!

[Srilaura]

They are NOT overseas. I'm sorry, but I just can't let that go.

Thank you!!

[sometimesy]

Ya know, if one of the single gals asked for money to get away from their compound and frolic on the beach, I might even donate.

[mbutterfly]

Aw. The little guy is adorable but he's only 4 months old? He looks like he's about a year old there. My son looked smaller when he was 6 months old, haha...

His father isn't too bad looking. I've seen worse, much worse. Looks like he's lost weight, and considering when're they are, wouldn't surprise me.

I actually was thinking Derrick looked much better in this photo than he's looked in a long time. Maybe I need my eyes tested or something. 

[Missy Vixen]

I still find their religious beliefs beyond horriying, and the conversion of Christians to Christianity completely ridiculous, but isn't this what a lot of people wanted Derick to do?  Get Jill away from her fucked up family, and try new things, see new people, eat new food, experience new languages, create their own family dynamic, etc? 

it's great that they are doing their own thing, but one has to wonder how spineless derickdillard is that it took running off to Central America to finally stand up to his in-laws. It's hard to imagine that a married college graduate holding down a full-time job and supporting a family could not tell Jim Boob and J-Chelle to butt out. One also has to wonder how he and Jilly Muffin will handle the holiday season with her family, especially since I'm betting she's already PG. Will they resist the demand to come home?

 

I'm not big on criticizing personal appearance, either, but sign me up for the Sandwich Brigade. He needs to eat.

[Bella]

it's great that they are doing their own thing, but one has to wonder how spineless derickdillard is that it took running off to Central America to finally stand up to his in-laws. It's hard to imagine that a married college graduate holding down a full-time job and supporting a family could not tell Jim Boob and J-Chelle to butt out. One also has to wonder how he and Jilly Muffin will handle the holiday season with her family, especially since I'm betting she's already PG. Will they resist the demand to come home?

 

I'm not big on criticizing personal appearance, either, but sign me up for the Sandwich Brigade. He needs to eat.

 

He is awfully skinny. OTOH, he's still at the age when his metabolism could just burn through whatever he eats and he never gains an ounce.

 

As for standing up to JimBoob and MEchelle, that's got to be hard for a kid, which is how I think of him. JimBoob has a very strong personality, and I suspect he isn't that nice behind closed doors. MEchelle has the flip side of that, the relentless whine, perfected. Many of us spent years figuring out how to deal with in-laws who weren't a fraction as difficult.

 

So since Derrick had talked about mission work and had actually done the Nepal thing, I'm sure this stood out as a great means of getting away from the Black Hole of Duggardom. It combined his interest in missionary work with distance from the Black Hole. He knew he could do it and he had the opportunity. If, as some speculate, WM fired him, this also filled the job niche. And if he's doing admin work that relates to accounting, he's applying and gaining experience with a skill that will make him more employable when he returns.

 

I think this was probably the best move he could make under the circumstances. YMMV, though.

[Churchhoney]

I actually was thinking Derrick looked much better in this photo than he's looked in a long time. Maybe I need my eyes tested or something. 

 

I agree.

 

When he's front on, I feel kind of bad for him because it looks to me as if his surgery has kind of skewed the top and bottom of his face away from each other. Despite that, however, I also think he looks pretty good in these shots. He's skinny, yeah, but I think he's just a really skinny guy. I think that he looks fairly relaxed and healthy and pretty happy, and I don't mind the mustache. I still wonder whether he isn't wearing it partly to distract from the differently skewed face that he now has. I would think having your face made that different by an operation might spook you a bit in the mirror, and you'd look for a distraction.

[Churchhoney]

it's great that they are doing their own thing, but one has to wonder how spineless derickdillard is that it took running off to Central America to finally stand up to his in-laws. It's hard to imagine that a married college graduate holding down a full-time job and supporting a family could not tell Jim Boob and J-Chelle to butt out.

 

I don't know. Just given the little I've seen of and heard about Derick's family of origin, I would bet he had absolutely no idea when he married into the Duggars just how intense the juggernaut of a massively controlling set of parents can be, especially when you're yoked to someone who's been utterly utterly under their control and, apparently, utterly blinded to their faults, such as that they aim to have puppets, not human offspring.

 

If one did -- as I suspect Derick did -- go from a quite rational and pretty easygoing family into Duggardom, I think it'd probably be darned hard to evade and fight against their bland expectation of total mind control, especially if, as in Derick's case, you didn't even know your own wife very well when it all started. And it's not as though he could really make common cause with Jill early on, if he did want to push back against some of the fam's expectations. So resisting anything JB and M wanted would have entailed not only resisting them but also creating some difficulties in his marriage.

 

I think it's probably a lot harder to assert yourself against the tide of Duggardom when you're inside it than it looks to be from the outside. So I'm really glad he took his wife and baby and left the country. Maybe distance is better than confrontation, in this case. (And, of course, maybe he's still totally on board with everything Duggar and doesn't want to confront them at all. Who knows?)

[BitterApple]

I think it's probably a lot harder to assert yourself against the tide of Duggardom when you're inside it than it looks to be from the outside.

Especially when your new father-in-law is gifting you with newly renovated McMansions and furniture.

[Churchhoney]

Especially when your new father-in-law is gifting you with newly renovated McMansions and furniture.

 

Exactly. I imagine Jim Bob is really good at playing both good cop and bad cop to keep people in line with his plans. Derick's probably never had close contact before with somebody that manipulative, I would wager.

[poopchute]

Holy shit, I visit this thread every few weeks and every time I think Derrick can't get any uglier and then I come back to see more pictures of him looking even more hideous.  LOL.  What an absolute piece of shit.

[parisprincess]

it's great that they are doing their own thing, but one has to wonder how spineless derickdillard is that it took running off to Central America to finally stand up to his in-laws

 

Since Derick was doing missionary work when Jill met him online, I wouldn't call him spineless, or consider another missionary stint as running off to stand up to JB and Michelle.  He's just what he feels is his calling.  Can't fault him for that. 

 

I also don't see anything wrong with how he looks.  I see tall, lanky guys all the time and never feel the need to feed them a sandwich, and he has a nice smile, not a face that would frighten small children.  Geez!  IMO, it's a person's behavior/actions that would make me consider them 'a piece of shit', never their looks.

[NikSac]

Wow that mustache is horrible - but I'm not a mustache fan, so I don't think I'd like it on anyone.

 

I'm with those who don't think the tall and lanky look is bad exactly. I personally think many of us have gotten so used to the majority of people being obese that someone of a "normal" weight looks "too skinny."

 

I'm glad to see what look to be real, genuine smiles on both of them.

[floridamom]

My pediatrician told me in no uncertain terms to NOT position my baby on his "feet" at 4 months old...it simply is not good for their leg bones, which are still too tender to even suggest they "stand" on them. These two don't have much common sense; I would think that Jill, having handled so many infant siblings would know what is right.

[Micks Picks]

Didn't anybody here read the DailyMail article on the Dillard's new career.  Plenty of pictures of them in El Salvador and of the areas around their mission.  Plenty of travel warnings.  And it mentions them going to Honduras as soon as their current job of working with other Americans who have come to mission to these people.  It states the new place in Honduras is 4 hours away by car.  It doesn't sound like much of an outpost so maybe their job there will be to supervise the building of another big meeting room that they can be sectioned off into sleeping rooms, eating rooms, etc, much like TTH.

[floridamom]

Also the way this family carried on about Jilly and nowaduggar "leaving for an overseas mission" that this trip would have been for an extended stay or a move for a few years....I read that they have returned yesterday to Akansas? Anyone know about that? Asking for donations, quitting his very good job, doesn't make any sense for a one month trip.

[Churchhoney]

 I would think that Jill, having handled so many infant siblings would know what is right.

 

This raises a question that I've had often. Even as a full-fledged adult, there are so many things you don't know about babies and young children and what they need, and who doesn't ask pediatricians, read books and get all sorts of solicited and unsolicited coaching from friends and relatives? (not all of it right or useful, of course, but... still...there's information there and questions get raised)

 

But how much learning and coaching did the sister moms get? Every time someone took over a new baby, Michelle seems to have been already checking out on her way to the next baby. If they looked to their only available role model, they really didn't see her modeling the role. And even though she was apparently more checked in during the older girls' early childhoods, they most likely wouldn't remember much or any of that in a way that would help them. And this is not a family that reads, so there most likely weren't baby books or magazines around -- and, of course, as young kids who necessarily had their own growing-up to attend to also, you certainly wouldn't want them to be going on well-child visits or sitting around reading about child development. But as I understand it, they were close to primary caregivers. I don't even see how that's possible.

 

As a 14-year-old with a couple of way young buddies, would you even have questions about what was the right thing to do or would you just blunderbuss along so you could get your childraising over with and go back to your own kid life?  Would a 12 or 15 year old ever realize what you just mentioned about babies' leg strength, for example, even after she'd been nearly a mom to a couple of kids? I'll bet Jill has a million more questions about how best to bring up Izzy now, when she's a grownup and her brain is pretty fully formed, than she did when she was "raising" her sibs, back in the day.

 

The whole spectacle just baffles me. And the same, to a lesser degree, for Jessa and whichever other older ones have superintended the "schooling." Have they even had a clue about good ways to do that? As teens, would the question of "What would be the best way to do this?" even enter their heads? I kind of doubt it. If it all is as many describe it, the whole situation just screams "neglect" on so many levels. The blind leading the blind doesnt' even begin to describe it.

[Micks Picks]

Hope this link works.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3180543/Inside-Jill-Duggar-s-life-missionary-EL-SALVADOR-husband-Derick-baby-Israel-living-armed-guard-remote-jungle-region-plagued-gang-violence-drugs-lawlessness.html

 

It's a very lengthy article and many pictures.

[NikSac]

My pediatrician told me in no uncertain terms to NOT position my baby on his "feet" at 4 months old...it simply is not good for their leg bones, which are still too tender to even suggest they "stand" on them. These two don't have much common sense; I would think that Jill, having handled so many infant siblings would know what is right.

 

Really?  I wonder how widely known this is. I know a ton of parents, even a couple who are very "granola" and it seems like every one of them had their kids standing or held them up standing starting really young. I'm not doubting your doc said it, just saying I think maybe it's not very widespread or widely embraced info?

[Clemgo3165]

Holy shit, I visit this thread every few weeks and every time I think Derrick can't get any uglier and then I come back to see more pictures of him looking even more hideous.  LOL.  What an absolute piece of shit.

Don't get how his appearance makes him a POS. Frankly I could see how that phrase would apply to Josh but not to Derick just because you don't find him attractive.

[RedPonyDriver]

about Derick and his weight...my husband is 53. He's STILL battles to gain weight. He is about 6' tall and the most he's ever weighed is 160lbs. He eats like an everloving horse...I mean, he still has that teenage boy appetite. His father was also long and lean his entire life. 

 

Some folks are just that way...man I wish I was :)

[Quilt Fairy]

Wow, after reading that article I think Jill and Derrick would have been safer going to Nepal.

[NikSac]

about Derick and his weight...my husband is 53. He's STILL battles to gain weight. He is about 6' tall and the most he's ever weighed is 160lbs. He eats like an everloving horse...I mean, he still has that teenage boy appetite. His father was also long and lean his entire life. 

 

Some folks are just that way...man I wish I was :)

 

haha I was thinking the same thing. NOT a battle for me, but I wish it was!  Alas I have the same battle a lot of people do, trying not to gain weight.

[SomePity1066]

Hope this link works.

http://www.dailymail...awlessness.html

It's a very lengthy article and many pictures.

Wow - holy shit ! I'm just dumbfounded...

 

19 Kids and Counting turns into Mexican Mafia meets Scarface. 

 

Is THIS what the Duggar kids have to do to get away from JB and Michelle... ?

 

For the love of God, get your son and yourselves out of that drug-fueled shooting range and go the fuck home... !!!

[Sew Sumi]

about Derick and his weight...my husband is 53. He's STILL battles to gain weight. He is about 6' tall and the most he's ever weighed is 160lbs. He eats like an everloving horse...I mean, he still has that teenage boy appetite. His father was also long and lean his entire life. 

 

Some folks are just that way...man I wish I was :)

CC, my hubby is the same, in a smaller frame. There have been times in our marriage when I outweighed him, and he's never gone north of 150-155. Even now, in his mid-50's, he only gains in his gut if he indulges in too many carbs. His limbs are skinny as ever. HATE!!! So yeah, my husband's entire family are little wiry things; I look obese next to them, and I am not overweight by any stretch, merely a large-boned , vertically-challenged person. 

 

I get Derick's leanness. He can't control that. I don't get the pornstache. Something he (or Muffy) thinks is attractive? Check before you wreck! 

[Happyfatchick]

I guess I have to be the one:  In that one pic (the first one in the article) where Derick and Jill are standing with just one lady, Jill as her hand on Derick's tummy - I looked at it for a second too long I guess.  Derick musta dressed in a hurry, the buttons on his shirt don't line up.

 

I'm falling out on the Jill looks lovely team.  Her skin looks good, her smile seems genuine, and her eyes look bright and happy.  Derick looks like he needs a bath and a shave (probably some deodorant) but he ALWAYS looked like he needed a bath and a shave to me.  Maybe the Freddie Mercury look was temporary (trying-it-out) and it's gone by now??  They seem satisfied looking, and I'm glad for them.  Hey, if you need to move to a drug laden crime zone to be ok with your life, more power to you.

[RedPonyDriver]

CC, my hubby is the same, in a smaller frame. There have been times in our marriage when I outweighed him, and he's never gone north of 150-155. Even now, in his mid-50's, he only gains in his gut if he indulges in too many carbs. His limbs are skinny as ever. HATE!!! So yeah, my husband's entire family are little wiry things; I look obese next to them, and I am not overweight by any stretch, merely a large-boned , vertically-challenged person. 

 

I get Derick's leanness. He can't control that. I don't get the pornstache. Something he (or Muffy) thinks is attractive? Check before you wreck! 

I have ALWAYS outweighed my hub. I'm sorta built square...my kids like to compare me to a brick wall...with love of course! 

[lookeyloo]

I just consulted the expert Mr Google about infants "standing" and notwithstanding the pediatrician's advice upthread, several baby advice sites say some babies enjoy being held and pushing against their feet - as early as one month. Iz has good head control and Derrick has a grip on him. I'm thinking it isn't a big deal.

[kokapetl]

Hope this link works.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3180543/Inside-Jill-Duggar-s-life-missionary-EL-SALVADOR-husband-Derick-baby-Israel-living-armed-guard-remote-jungle-region-plagued-gang-violence-drugs-lawlessness.html

It's a very lengthy article and many pictures.

I see their mission has them teaching God's language: English.

I guess I have to be the one: In that one pic (the first one in the article) where Derick and Jill are standing with just one lady, Jill as her hand on Derick's tummy - I looked at it for a second too long I guess. Derick musta dressed in a hurry, the buttons on his shirt don't line up.

Maybe he likes one side of the shirt higher, to match his face. Edited August 5, 2015 by Kokapetl

[GeeGolly]

Hope this link works.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3180543/Inside-Jill-Duggar-s-life-missionary-EL-SALVADOR-husband-Derick-baby-Israel-living-armed-guard-remote-jungle-region-plagued-gang-violence-drugs-lawlessness.html

 

It's a very lengthy article and many pictures.

One of the 'commentators' suggested the reader look up Jim & Elizabeth Elliott, so I did. Sad story.

Also, I see why they need financial supporters; $300.00 a week to stay there? Yikes!!

[mbutterfly]

I have to say I feel a little better about their mission. There is something real and spiritual in being a warm and loving presence with innocent people living in the midst of hatred and violence. I hope they focus on "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so" theology. If Jill is thriving as much as it appears, some good is happening. 

[yogi2014L]

I have to say I feel a little better about their mission. There is something real and spiritual in being a warm and loving presence with innocent people living in the midst of hatred and violence. I hope they focus on "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so" theology. If Jill is thriving as much as it appears, some good is happening. 

I feel like this will change them for the better, on the reelz. And as much as I know Jill is a kool aid drinker, I have a higer opinion of her and Derrick because they don't pontificate like Jessa and Ben and are atleast trying to do some good in the world, instead of sitting home and being a waste of space ( jessa and ben/Josh Im looking at you)

Edited August 5, 2015 by yogi2014L

[Jellybeans]

I learned from my underweight daughter to never comment on someone's "skinniness". It is rude to call someone fat, and it is rude to call someone skinny, she said. She was tormented during her teenaged years for being "so skinny".

Derrick looks fine. Most of us have our imperfections well sewn in, so to speak.

[Skittl1321]

Also, I see why they need financial supporters; $300.00 a week to stay there? Yikes!!

I wonder if they are there on that plan, or if they are there as administrators from SOS.  I think that $300 rate is for the "voluntourists" high school and college kids coming from various churches for a week or two.  (Edit: I just looked it up and SOS takes kids as young as 10! To El Salvador!)

 

I don't know if Jill and Derrick are the same sort of short term missions or if they are actually a long time job; in which case their fundraising would be for something other than the standard "pay your way".  If they are SOS employees they might have fundraising targets, just like, say, a university president does, required to keep their job, but they are likely salaried- and the money they raise isn't the same as the $650 for the first week $300 each additional week someone like I would have to pay to volunteer there.

[sometimesy]

Not sure this is a good idea for them. Teaching English is much better than just jabbering about switching from one form of Christian to another. Taking a baby to this danger area doesn't make sense to me. I can see a single person doing this, but not a couple with a baby. I understand why they wanted to hide their location, but if they planned on putting it on social media anyway what was the secrecy regarding the location for donators? They still grifting, but at least they are teaching English.  

[Missy Vixen]

Since Derick was doing missionary work when Jill met him online, I wouldn't call him spineless, or consider another missionary stint as running off to stand up to JB and Michelle.  He's just what he feels is his calling.  Can't fault him for that. 

 

IMHO of course and it is what it is, but seriously, what exactly is derickdillard's "calling"? He's not doing missions work. He doesn't qualify to serve in his own denomination's missions program. He's hanging around in a Central American country with his wife and his child. They're not converting the lost. They're evangetourists, or whatever it's called.

 

I think leaving the country was easier than standing up to his in-laws. And one would have to wonder why he didn't seem to divine until after the wedding that this might be a problem. If TV viewers could point out the extreme control the Duggars have over their adult children, why couldn't he? There were no examples of this while they were courting? Come on. He's a college grad and an adult who lived in another country for two years before he married Jilly Muffin. If he's still that naive (couldn't figure out what Jim Boob and J-Chelle's problem was before the wedding) I wonder about him.

 

Again, my opinion.

I learned from my underweight daughter to never comment on someone's "skinniness". It is rude to call someone fat, and it is rude to call someone skinny, she said. She was tormented during her teenaged years for being "so skinny".

 

I wondered if he lost weight because of the jaw surgery.

Thank you for the reminder to be a little more charitable. ;-)

[Absolom]

His mother surely recognized the problem.  In the airport it was obvious she thought not being able to text each other directly without someone else reading it was ridiculous. 

 

I'm wondering if Jill and Derick are going to set up another mission house and run it or if they are there for training so they can give the current guy some extended breaks.

[Guatemama3641]

I have done long-term missions in Central America (mainly Guatemala), and really, I would have to say they are relatively safe where they are at. Yes, there is A LOT of violence in El Salvador (and Central America in general)- so much that they seem to be on the verge of another civil war, but for the most part the reputable missions organizations have protections and safeguards in place to at least give some protection.

 

I have to say the pictures of the people they are working with made me miss Guatemala (I can't wait for October). Also, the school years down there run differently than in the US. They go January-October, so I'm hoping some of the kids in the pictures are coming to SOS for after school tutoring and enrichment. Like someone else posted above, there is something to say for giving some peace to people living in not always ideal conditions.

 

Last thing... Derek- PLEASE get rid of the pornstache. My friend says D looks like a cop on some 80's tv show.

[JoanArc]

 

I think leaving the country was easier than standing up to his in-laws.

To defend Derick, you couldn't keep Jim Bob out of your business with a restraining order and a shotgun. Especially with his favorite daughter at your side. Not answer the phone, moving an hour or two away, etc. wouldn't have worked. Hell, the Duggars are going to visit El Salvador on a regular basis. They're like radiation, best to limit one's expose as best you can.

Edited August 5, 2015 by JoanArc

[Churchhoney]

And one would have to wonder why he didn't seem to divine until after the wedding that this might be a problem.

 

 

I'm a hundred percent certain that Jim Bob is an extremely determined, master manipulator. And I think he probably decided pretty early on that he'd turn his manipulative powers on Derick, whom he probably saw as serving some of his purposes. ....

 

Plus, I think we're all pretty sure that Derick was emotionally/spiritually drifting a bit for some reason when he first got in touch with JB. And being in a confused or possibly somewhat depressed? state can really dim your perceptions, especially when it comes to people's behavior. I also expect that Derick had never been well acquainted with any serious manipulators before, so he didn't really have an eye out for this. .... And he just missed it. He didn't have the benefit of watching the whole play from outside but was inside, having the full force of Jim Bob's purposes turned right on him, and he went into it with an apparent hunger to get some of his needs met. Then, after he got together with Jill, he couldn't turn to her to confirm any suspicions or strengthen him, since she's full of Kool-aid up past the eyebrows.

 

He looks to me like just a regular, somewhat naive young guy who got caught up in the web of a much older nut that he just wasn't prepared by nature or experience to deal with. It's really pretty hard to take on your new in-laws in a knock-down, drag-out fight so early on, I'm betting. Especially when Jim Bob does a damned good job of keeping his nefarious nature shrouded and would probably have plausible deniability in the eyes of everybody else around. Derick's mom was sick and probably didn't have the sharpest eye at the time, either. I'm really glad he grabbed his family and left the country. It's probably not the ideal solution. But given the position he found himself in, I think it may have been the best he could manage at the time.

 

I wonder what it portends for the rest of Derick's lifetime relationship with the Duggars, I must say.

[Mariva]

New mission update on their blog - dillardfamily.com/blog?ID=41e1b494-db9c-404c-a365-9670bde07d4c

 

Nothing really earth-shattering but it sounds like they’re adjusting really well to their move. I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that Jill is making an effort to reach out to the locals and learn Spanish. FYI Jill also mentioned that they’ll be staying in Central America through this month to go to language school, and then return to the US for a “short time” before heading back out to the mission field. So it sounds like they won't be at Brandon & Michael’s (Bates) wedding, which I think is next weekend. I bet they'll be back for Cousin Amy's wedding in September though.

[Beaner]

I'm a hundred percent certain that Jim Bob is an extremely determined, master manipulator. And I think he probably decided pretty early on that he'd turn his manipulative powers on Derick, whom he probably saw as serving some of his purposes. ....

 

Plus, I think we're all pretty sure that Derick was emotionally/spiritually drifting a bit for some reason when he first got in touch with JB. And being in a confused or possibly somewhat depressed? state can really dim your perceptions, especially when it comes to people's behavior. I also expect that Derick had never been well acquainted with any serious manipulators before, so he didn't really have an eye out for this. .... And he just missed it. He didn't have the benefit of watching the whole play from outside but was inside, having the full force of Jim Bob's purposes turned right on him, and he went into it with an apparent hunger to get some of his needs met. Then, after he got together with Jill, he couldn't turn to her to confirm any suspicions or strengthen him, since she's full of Kool-aid up past the eyebrows.

 

He looks to me like just a regular, somewhat naive young guy who got caught up in the web of a much older nut that he just wasn't prepared by nature or experience to deal with. It's really pretty hard to take on your new in-laws in a knock-down, drag-out fight so early on, I'm betting. Especially when Jim Bob does a damned good job of keeping his nefarious nature shrouded and would probably have plausible deniability in the eyes of everybody else around. Derick's mom was sick and probably didn't have the sharpest eye at the time, either. I'm really glad he grabbed his family and left the country. It's probably not the ideal solution. But given the position he found himself in, I think it may have been the best he could manage at the time.

 

I wonder what it portends for the rest of Derick's lifetime relationship with the Duggars, I must say.

I think you are 100% right.

[Sew Sumi]

I could have sworn I posted this earler, but here we go again. Derick has lost the pornstache. I know I'm in mourning! lol

 

https://instagram.com/p/6BYqJjGCT5/?taken-by=derickdillard