Another Duggar Episode

Back in August, I received an email from the Duggar's coordinating producer asking if we were available to come out to 'Duggarland.' She wanted us to drop off some items for their flea market that would benefit Arkansas Children's Hospital.

"We're due for another Pope family cameo!" she wrote.

"How did we get to this point?" I asked Michael while giggling.  "We are not that interesting and we don't know the Duggars all that well."  But we like them!  And we LOVE ACH.  So we set a time for our arrival, and a week later I pulled up to the Duggar's gate to drop off a few things.

A lot of people ask me if the Duggar episodes are staged.  No one has told me what to say, but sometimes things aren't exactly natural.  That day, when I pulled up to the gate, the producer (a super nice guy!) had me reverse out and start over so that they could film us driving up.  We also had to get out of the car twice because they didn't get the right angle the first time.

Awkward.  Let me just say, reality tv takes skill.

When it was time to unload, the Duggars tried, unsuccessfully, to engage Samuel in a conversation with Josie.  He usually has to warm up to people...so he was pretty overwhelmed by the questions, the dangling microphones, and the big camera hovering three feet from his face.

From what I hear, this didn't make the final cut for the episode.  Whew!

With the actual flea market a week away, we tried to prep Samuel for the cameras and for what he would be doing at the flea market.  He was pretty excited about the pony rides.  He talked about it for the rest of the week.

A few days before the flea market, Samuel caught a virus...a cold with a high fever.  Saturday morning he was fever free, but not feeling 100%, so we stopped by the flea market for only a couple of minutes.

When we arrived, the producer led us to where Michelle was greeting fans who were waiting in a LONG line to get to her.  We watched her chat with several people while he tried to get her attention.  I could watch the Duggars converse with their fans all day long.  They are so genuine and friendly with everyone (even the fans that made me cringe from their inappropriate questions and stories!)

We spoke to Michelle for a couple of minutes then made a beeline for the pony ride.

And all was well.  I've been told that the Duggars raised a substantial amount of money for the ACH NICU (YAY!) and our little boy got his pony ride.

No, we haven't seen the episode.  Maybe one of these days I'll get up the nerve to watch all of the episodes we've been on.  For now, I'm pretty content just writing this blog....in my pjs...behind a safe computer screen.  Ha!