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Joseph Duggar And Kendra Caldwell Are Engaged! Was He Wrong To Pop The Question At His Sister’s Wedding?

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 04:31 PST, May 29, 2017

Joseph Duggar and Kendra Caldwell are engaged! The latest Duggar couple to make it official sealed the deal, so to speak, at Joy-Anna’s wedding to Austin Forsyth, AOL is reporting. So was Joseph wrong to steal his sister’s thunder by upstaging her on her wedding day?

The seventh-oldest Duggar child, and the third-oldest Duggar son, 22-year-old Joseph, began his “courtship” with family friend Kendra Caldwell back in March. As ET Online reported at the time, it was a big step for both of them. The two had been friends – in a “friends-of-the-family” sort of way, for 15 years. But in Duggar Land, relationships and marriages are oft born of friendship, as Joseph explained at the time.

“We’ve been talking for about six months and right when we started talking, we really hit it off really well.”

Ordinarily, when teenagers or young adults enter into a relationship with one another, it consists of little more than the two of them acknowledging to themselves, and to each other, that they’re ready to admit that they’re in a relationship, and they go from there. However, for the Duggars, it doesn’t work that way. Instead, they must enter into what they call a “courtship.” Dad Jim Bob Duggar, as well as the father of the other person, must give permission, and the relationship must be viewed as a precursor to marriage, and not just to see where it goes. And, during a “courtship,” and unlike during a friendship or any other form of a relationship outside of a courtship, the partners are allowed to touch each other – somewhat. Kendra explains as follows.

“I’m looking forward to side-hugs.”

That’s right, in a Duggar courtship, physical content is limited to side-hugs. And of course, all dates must be chaperoned.

In keeping with the Duggar tradition of treating a courtship as a big deal, Joseph marked the occasion back in March by putting a ring on it; specifically, by giving Kendra a promise ring.

Now, just a few short months later, Joseph has made good on that promise and replaced the promise ring with an engagement ring.

What’s more, it seems he popped the question at sister Joy-Anna’s wedding.

“We are so excited to be engaged and look forward to a lifetime together. We are so grateful for how the Lord brought us together, and we look forward to this special time of engagement and to someday serving Christ as man and wife.”

And as for popping the question at his sister’s wedding: strangely enough, Joy-Anna and Austin were OK with it! Unlike so many brides, who want their wedding day to be all about them and them only, Joy-Anna didn’t seem to mind having some of her thunder stolen by her younger brother, as Joseph explains.

“I asked Joy and Austin a few weeks ago if they would mind if I proposed to her at [their] wedding and they were like, ‘Oh yeah, we’d love it if you do that.'”

Now that they’re engaged, the courting rules are relaxed a bit, and the happy couple can actually touch each other. They can exchange frontal hugs and even hold hands and say “I love you!”

As of this writing, the couple have not officially announced a wedding date – at least, not publicly. However, things move fast regarding Duggar relationships, so expect wedding bells for Joseph and Kendra before too much longer – and expect it to be dutifully covered by the cameras for a special episode of Counting On.

[Featured Image by Ingram+Publishing/Thinkstock]

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