Fans of "Jill and Jessa: Counting On" star Jill Duggar and her family have often expressed their concern that she might contract the dreaded Zika virus while fulfilling her Christian ministry in El Salvador. To assuage their fears, the young mother recently provided a health update on their family blog.
"Health is something we don't take for granted, especially on the mission field in another country in an environment we're not used to," she writes. "Derick and I are generally very healthy people, but when you're eating, drinking and living in a different place than the one you grew up in, it's not uncommon to come down with the 'traveler's stuff' or other bacteria/viruses in the local jungle area."
Even though they "haven't had Zika that we know of," Jill says there were times that both of them were laid out for a few days because of certain sicknesses. Thankfully, they got sick not at the same time so there's always someone well enough to care for their infant son Israel David.
Israel sometimes gets sick, too, adds Jill. She shares that he "was sick last week with what we initially thought was a virus (may have been a 24-hour bug), only to find out that he had just cut two of his first four molars and the others look as though they'll pop through any day now!"
Just like his dad, Israel is getting tall. Jill says their son is "33 inches now and weighs a whopping 28 pounds." He enjoys reading and playing football and soccer with his dad and other friends.
Meanwhile, Jill also bared plans to return home to Arkansas after this July. "It will have been over a year since we began working in Central America and about 10 months since we've been in the states," she says. "We are looking forward to being home with family (and Chick-fil-A) and plan to take some Bible classes and be involved in local ministry while we're there."
