Bontragers and Bowers Engaged

[HereticHick]

These 2 Bontrager babes, if same-gendered, will be expected to be BFF from day 1. No pressure, kids. And enjoy those joint birthday parties for the rest of enternity.

[mydoggoskeeper]

Although he undoubtedly includes himself in the "11% of Americans who have read the bible cover to cover" (does he not realize that not all Americans are Christians?), clearly he missed the parts about humility and the failings of pride.  

He is a sheltered, homeschooled kid from middle America who "works" at home on the farm.  Nothing wrong with any of those but in combination, it most likely limits the variety of people from different backgrounds one meaningfully interacts with.   The arrogance and self-importance are laughable and probably in the future regrettable.   Who is he to speak authoritatively on culture?  

Ma and Pa B should have counseled him to focus on leaving and cleaving -- even for a fundie his pompousness and age are at a new zenith.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

I imagine that these double first cousins who are almost the exact same age will look like fraternal twins. So weird.

[usedbicycle]

I wonder why Cass waited over 2 weeks after Carolina to announce her pregnancy when they became pregnant at the exact same time. 

It seems like she's always one step behind Lina including her courtship announcement, engagement, even the order in which they got married and exited the ceremony. I wonder if she feels her sister gets to go first in all these situations because she's older. It seems so silly. 

[singsingsing]

I read the Bible cover to cover and it was what put the nail in the coffin of any possibility of me ever being an orthodox Christian. Reading the Bible in full really brought home how flawed and inconsistent it was, and did more than anything else to convince me that there was simply no way it was the inerrant word of God. 

I also have many good things to say about the Bible (especially as a collection of ancient literature) and see no reason why one couldn't view it, or at least parts of it, as inspired by a higher power, or accept parts of it as sources of wisdom and guidance in life. But the best cure I know for fundamentalism has got to be basic critical thinking + reading the entire Bible.

[JermajestyDuggar]

5 minutes ago, usedbicycle said:

I wonder why Cass waited over 2 weeks after Carolina to announce her pregnancy when they became pregnant at the exact same time. 

It seems like she's always one step behind Lina including her courtship announcement, engagement, even the order in which they got married and exited the ceremony. I wonder if she feels her sister gets to go first in all these situations because she's older. It seems so silly. 

The Bons don't seem to be thunder stealers. Chelsy got engaged a few days before the triple wedding weekend yet she didn't announce the engagement for over a month. Then Lina didn't announce her pregnancy until a week after Chelsy and John's wedding. Then Cass waited to announce her pregnancy. 

The Bons aren't like the Duggars. I don't think they would ever ask someone to marry them at their sibling's wedding. 

[JillyO]

8 hours ago, Bethella said:

The last names are actually different- this is the Bower family while Emily's last name is Brower .

Small correction: This is actually the Bowers family.

[VBOY9977]

I hope this doesn’t put too much pressure on Bryn... from the Instagram story the Bontragers posted right before they left for tour, they posted a pic that showed her from the side and I couldn’t see any signs of a belly

but who am I kidding she probably is already pregnant too

[DomWackTroll]

Forgot to add that I just love it when these religious nuts quote Ronald Reagan. Sure, Reagan said all the things he needed to say to pacify them, but do these people actually think he sincerely believed anything close to what they do as far as religion? The man was a Hollywood actor who did not even attend church regularly. He hung out with people like Rock Hudson, and I highly doubt that Hudson's sexuality shocked him. Back in the Seventies, the Religious Right couldn't even get Reagan to support a law banning gay people from teaching in public schools.

Between Nancy and chief of staff Michael Deaver, these freaks didn't have a hope in hell of getting near him. And that was just fine with him. 

[Bethella]

3 hours ago, JillyO said:

Small correction: This is actually the Bowers family.

This is what I get for replying to threads after midnight.

[mydoggoskeeper]

25 minutes ago, DomWackTroll said:

Forgot to add that I just love it when these religious nuts quote Ronald Reagan. Sure, Reagan said all the things he needed to say to pacify them, but do these people actually think he sincerely believed anything close to what they do as far as religion? The man was a Hollywood actor who did not even attend church regularly. He hung out with people like Rock Hudson, and I highly doubt that Hudson's sexuality shocked him. Back in the Seventies, the Religious Right couldn't even get Reagan to support a law banning gay people from teaching in public schools.

Between Nancy and chief of staff Michael Deaver, these freaks didn't have a hope in hell of getting near him. And that was just fine with him. 

I'm a little surprised he included Reagan in his rant against the declining culture in America.  Even Reagan didn't meet the Bontrager standard of a biblical family -- Nancy was his second wife!

[Themanda Duggar]

13 hours ago, lilith said:

And I find it very odd that these girls are waiting til the end of their first trimesters, after their first ultrasounds in this case, to announce their first pregnancies to their family. 

This might be the first time either of the Bowers daughters were able to have a secret they could keep from their families.  With the way they grew up, the lack of privacy, and their parents involved in every detail of their lives, I imagine it felt pretty good to be able to keep their pregnancies between just them and their barely post adolescent husbands for a while.

They probably don’t need too much advice on pregnancy from their mother.  They’ve been involved enough in all of the pregnancies she’s had to be pretty well educated on the subject already.

[PennySycamore]

Not to mention that Nancy was pregnant when she and Ronnie got married.

[Briefly]

1 hour ago, PennySycamore said:

Not to mention that Nancy was pregnant when she and Ronnie got married.

And his first wife was Catholic, which I'm sure would just scandalize the Bontragers and there is still bias against Catholics in some circles.

[Tangy Bee]

I'll just wait for someone to tell his lil ass off at some point. Hopefully sooner than later. He appears to think he is very "aware".

[mango_fandango]

He sounds like every other young fundie man who is recently married (unless they’re the type to be private/not use social media much). Ben Seewald used to post this kind of stuff on social media but seems to have stopped since becoming a dad. The only exception to this rule seems to be Derick. He’s gotten worse over the years. 

[neurogirl]

1. Baby Bowers #1 was announced Jan 4 "at 12 weeks." Forgive me if this is inappropriate, but does this mean that both Bowers babies were conceived mid October? (I am one of those FJ-ers pre-kids who doesn't understand how dating works)

2. Both of my cousins' wives (the fathers are brothers) announced pregnancies over the Holidays, as I had a hunch they would. The older couple just walked into the house 7 months pregnant, but because we are a midwestern family no one said anything! We just kind of looked at each other and waited for them to announce, and they thought it was really weird we didn't say anything. But in our defense, the mom-to-be was in a bulky sweater and seemed awkward so we thought maybe she was trying to hide it for some reason (like a planned announcement). The younger couple announced to the whole family at about 8 weeks, and they had to announce at dinner because mom-to-be refused wine! (lol) In both cases the soon-to-be grandparents knew. 

I have never been pregnant so I can't say for sure what I would do, but I am an only child because my parents had some miscarriages and decided to stop trying (and because I was perfect obviously). My fiance's family LOOOOOOVES babies and had four kids no problem, and anyway I think I would probably wait until 12 weeks to tell parents, at least his side, because if anything should go wrong (God forbid) I don't know if I could handle their feelings in real-time as well as my own. But we are 4-5 years away from trying so who knows what could happen.

[JermajestyDuggar]

Everyone is different when it comes to announcing pregnancy to family and friends. So I can't comment much on that although I find it weird they saw their families all the time and didn't tell them for months. 

Now announcing on fb is different. The majority of people I see announcing on FB are are 10+ weeks. I think it's often because people feel more comfortable announcing after their first ultra sound and everything looks fine. I was around 11 weeks when I announced to family although I told my mom and BFF sooner. I think I announced on fb around 12/13 weeks.

[picklepizzas]

Wow, I guess they could just reserve one birthing tub for the two of them! think of the cost savings! (sorry, in the middle of zsu's blog and her dramatic birthing tub exploits). but seriously i wonder if they ever just want to experience their own life, not a mirrored double life. 

[Jana814]

I have a college friend who didn't announcing either one of her pregnancies on Facebook. When she had her first child a mutual friend said "I didn't know you were expecting". I quickly emailed her and told that she was keeping it a secret do to previous issues. My friend thanked me for the information and then edited her comment to just saying congratulations. 

[freethemall]

17 hours ago, neurogirl said:

1. Baby Bowers #1 was announced Jan 4 "at 12 weeks." Forgive me if this is inappropriate, but does this mean that both Bowers babies were conceived mid October? (I am one of those FJ-ers pre-kids who doesn't understand how dating works)

The date of conception is generally week 2-3 of your pregnancy, depending on your ovulation cycle. Pregnancy is counted from the date of the last period - you're essentially already in a pregnancy cycle when your period ends, even if you haven't conceived. If she was 12 weeks in January then pregnancy began about mid-October but she conceived around October 26 - November 2. But again, pregnancy dates are not counted from the date of conception.

[JermajestyDuggar]

13 minutes ago, freethemall said:

The date of conception is generally week 2-3 of your pregnancy, depending on your ovulation cycle. Pregnancy is counted from the date of the last period - you're essentially already in a pregnancy cycle when your period ends, even if you haven't conceived. If she was 12 weeks in January then pregnancy began about mid-October but she conceived around October 26 - November 2. But again, pregnancy dates are not counted from the date of conception.

They actually are changed nowadays at the dating ultrasounds. It's extremely common for your due date to change after the dating ultrasound around 8-11 weeks. Mine changed because I ovulated very early in my cycle. I was so happy to lose 5 days of pregnancy in one appointment! I hate pregnancy. My cousin added a week at her dating ultrasound. She's a late ovulater. She wasn't pleased.

[lilith]

In Touch Weekly ran an (odd) story about the Bontragers.

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/the-bontrager-family-151796

Theyre focusing on the Duggar connection, but it’s strange to see them in a mainstream gossip rag.

credit to @luv2laugh for finding this and mentioning it in the Maxhell thread.

[luv2laugh]

42 minutes ago, lilith said:

In Touch Weekly ran an (odd) story about the Bontragers.

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/the-bontrager-family-151796

Theyre focusing on the Duggar connection, but it’s strange to see them in a mainstream gossip rag.

credit to @luv2laugh for finding this and mentioning it in the Maxhell thread.

I hope it doesn’t boost the ego of the one son who is apparently trying to get into politics...

 

 

@lilith I read it again and am shocked they didn’t bring up the snark-worthy double wedding!!!!! Also, no reversal talk at Chelsy’s wedding! They missed out on the best parts.

[lilith]

2 minutes ago, luv2laugh said:

I hope it doesn’t boost the ego of the one son who is apparently trying to get into politics...

That had occurred to me. I’m sure he and his wife would love to launch his career off the back of fundie celebritydom.

Poor Steve Maxwell - not only is Chelsy a knee flashing makeup wearing fun having harlot, but she’s featured in the gutter press! I’m sure he subscribes to the old trope that a respectable woman is only mentioned in the press twice in her life - upon her birth and upon her marriage.