On June 23, Anna Duggar turned 33 years old. She was also totally snubbed by her in-laws.
This year she will become a mother of seven.
She may also (hopefully) lose her husband to the prison system if he is convicted (fingers crossed!).
As things stand, Anna just had the worst birthday of her life ... so far.
Anna Duggar's birthday came and went this year.
Not with a bang (never outside of marriage) but with a whimper.
Her OG Duggar in-laws couldn't even be bothered to post a new, recent photo or give a real tribute.
(Seriously, that pic was already in our gallery. Who knows how long Jim Bob and Michelle had it)
If you think that this birthday equivalent of writing "have a great summer!" in a yearbook wasn't shady, look again.
This is the kind of Duggar family birthday tribute that Jim Bob and Michelle wrote for Anna just one year ago.
The Duggars wrote what was basically a love letter to Anna last year, when she turned 32.
They sang her praises, they gushed and raved over their daughter-in-law.
This year, not even their desperation to mend their twisted family's image could make them offer more than a token tribute.
It could not come at a less dignified time for Anna.
Her husband is on home confinement as he awaits trial.
Josh was arrested in late April and charged with possessing photos and videos of the sexual abuse of extremely young girls.
Josh's home confinement means that he's not able to help Anna with her pregnancy or with their six children.
(We're not saying that he would have before, or that it would have been a good thing)
All things considered, Anna probably just had the worst birthday of her life ... so far, anyway.
Of course, being snubbed by so many of her in-laws in such a public way may have been her own doing.
No one is (publicly) suggesting that it was Anna's job to magically stop her husband from being a disgusting monster.
But while Anna didn't choose Josh's actions for him, she arguably chose her reactions to them.
Report after report has come out and revealed that Anna believes that Josh is innocent.
This isn't just a case of believing that he's been magically cured through prayer or that he just needs another fake rehab stint.
It has been reported that Anna is actually going so far as to clash with Jim Bob over the charges against Josh.
When you're in a cult, like the Duggar family is, it's "normal" to engage in magical thinking about reality.
We're not talking about their religious views. "Magical thinking" is basically referring to how people wish away problems.
Anna is taking things a step further ... by reportedly believing that Josh isn't just innocent, but the real victim in all of this.
It is said that Anna believes that Josh is being actively persecuted, perhaps due to his extreme religious beliefs.
Reportedly, she believes that his arrest would never have happened under the administration of disgraced former president Donald Trump.
Anna seems to blame President Biden for the arrest ... one stemming from a 2019 investigation.
The thing about conspiracy theories is that they don't have to make rational sense.
The goal of many conspiracy theories is to bring comfort to people by imposing a false sense of order in order to explain events.
In this case, Anna would rather clash with her in-laws and ignore reality than accept what sort of creature her husband really is.