'Counting On's Abbie Duggar Is Keeping Her Career Options Open After Her Baby Is Born

When John-David Duggar met his future wife, Abbie Burnett, at a church in Oklahoma, they bonded over more than just a mutual attraction. The Counting On star was a pilot who'd flown on several medical mission trips and Abbie was a registered nurse. Now they're married and happily ensconced in John-David's home state of Arkansas. They're also expecting their first baby just a year after getting hitched, in typical Duggar tradition. But perhaps these two aren't as traditional as fans might've thought. If you're wondering if Abbie Duggar works still or plans to do again in the future, it sounds like she might have some career plans after becoming a mother, something that hasn't really been the Duggar narrative in the past.

Before tying the knot in November 2018, Abbie had been a nurse in Oklahoma for a year after taking care of her terminally ill grandparents. Once they got married, though, Abbie decided to pause her career as she and John-David moved to Arkansas and got accustomed to married life together.

The following August, the couple announced they were expecting their first baby, via their shared Instagram account with the couple holding a little onesie that read "Baby Passenger On Board" from the cockpit of a plane, a nod to John-David's aviation career, of course. The flight theme continued with their official statement announcing their happy news. "We are on Cloud 9 about welcoming our own little Duggar into the world!!!" they captioned a photo of themselves. "It really is amazing to think about being parents and having our own child to raise. We are thankful that God has blessed us with this new life and we look forward to taking on this new adventure!"

Clearly John-David's new role as an expectant father is meshing well with his role as a private pilot and flight instructor. But what about Abbie?

The expectant mom told Us Weekly in a recent interview, in fact, that she plans to keep her career options open after welcoming her little girl in the coming months. "I’ve got my license transferred over to Arkansas so that I have that availability if I want it," she told the magazine, adding that she's "planning to keep up [her] license by doing the continuing education hours."

Abbie went on to tell Us Weekly that she and John-David have "talked about looking at some options of getting a job," but aren't in any rush to do so. "We’ve just really been enjoying being married and traveling a lot this year. So we’ll just keep it as an option and see what happens," she told the magazine. 'We may wait until our little girl is grown. We’ll just have it as an option if we want or need it."

The couple seem to be pretty supportive of each other's careers in general. For example, Abbie recently joined John-David and members of Mediccorp on a disaster relief trip to the Bahamas after it was devastated by Hurricane Dorian in September.

Abbie Duggar might have married into one of the most traditional families on reality television, but her reality appears to be considerably more modern than Counting On fans might have expected.