The Duggar family is about to grow even larger, as news broke Friday that Jessa Duggar is engaged to boyfriend Ben Seewald.
"We are so blessed to be engaged!" the happy husband and wife-to-be said in a statement. "God has written an amazing story through our courtship, and another chapter has just begun! We are thrilled to see what the future holds - especially the wedding bells!"
The 21 year old "19 Kids and Counting" starlet recently celebrated her 11 "monthiversary" with Seewald, 19. At the time, he presented her with a pearl bracelet and a handwritten love note, which he decorated with hearts.
"What good are such beautiful pearls if not to have the grace of being worn by one so elegant and majestic as yourself?" the note read. "These pearls were lonely...just like I am when we're apart; but not anymore! I love you my precious princess!"
Jessa is the second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar to get married; old sister Jill married Derick Dillard on June 21. And, like her sister, Jessa is saving her first kiss with her fiance for marriage. The couple holds to conservative values concerning relationships, as she and Seewald have only shared occasional "side hugs" until now, and always have a chaperone on their dates together.
"When I'm with him, around him, I think he brings out the best in me," she said on her family's reality show when they first started courting. Added Ben: "I think we're a good match."
We do have a lot in common," she also told PEOPLE Magazine. "He is a mellow personality, very romantic and very sweet. I am very cut and dried. And my sisters are coaching me on sweet romantic things to say."
Bur prior to their engagement, the couple played it coy concerning marriage.
""People always ask us when we are getting married," Seewald told PEOPLE at Derick and Jill's wedding.
"We don't feel pressure to get married. If there's any pressure, it's a good kind of pressure."
Although no wedding date has been set, Jessa and Ben are sure of one thing: they want a big family. Jessa has 18 siblings, and Seewald is the oldest of seven children.
"We are talking about our goals and even just like future, with family, we both talked about adoptions," Duggar told PEOPLE. "We are open to having children and both want to adopt, too."
New episodes of 19 Kids and Counting begin airing Sept. 2 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on TLC.
