Derick Dillard has announced his wife Jill Duggar Dillard has passed a seven-hour, comprehensive exam and is now a certified professional midwife.
"I am so proud of her for her diligence, perseverance, and hard work to see this long road through to its end and reaching her goal of becoming a CPM."
Dillard explained how the process included course work, studying, tests, research, clinicals, "sleepless nights with long labors, being on call for multiple births at a time, and the comprehensive test for full certification as a CPM."
"This will be especially helpful on the mission field," Dillard noted.
"The light at the end of the tunnel was always there, but we just hadn't seen it until recently. And if anybody knows how much hard work it has been for her, it's me. Jill has been very disciplined and sacrificed a lot to get to this point. So much so, that I don't have the capacity within this brief blog post to give all the details to do it justice. Now begins the fruit of that labor, that is, having a valuable skill and 'tool in the tool belt' to use for the furthering of God's Kingdom."The Dillards, who appeared on the recently canceled docu-series "19 Kids and Counting," were married in 2014 and welcomed their first child, son Israel David, in April.
They have been working as missionaries for the past several months.
The siblings' devoutly Christian parents Jim Bob and Michelle were widely criticized for covering up Josh's actions for which he has since apologized.
Josh further tarnished the family's reputation following the hacking of infidelity website Ashley Madison by admitting he had cheated on his wife Anna with numerous women.
Jill remains a popular social-media celebrity.
