Christy and Jameson Haygood: What are you providing?

By Katie Ginn

When Christy and Jameson Haygood married in 2012, Christy was training in gynecologic oncology. She’d be making good money soon, and Jameson considered that a personal challenge. 

“I was excited to see if I could try and maybe match her income,” he says, recalling his career as a pharmaceutical sales rep. 

Today, things are different: Jameson’s typical weekday involves hosting “Good Fight with Jameson Haygood” for two hours on 103.9 WYAB FM and taking care of the kids. Meanwhile, Christy cares for cancer patients at St. Dominic Hospital, with little flexibility during the workday.

This arrangement doesn’t always feel perfect. 

“There’s a lot of mom guilt,” Christy says of her busy schedule. 

“I do not make as much money as she does, and I could not pay these bills around here with my job,” Jameson says. That’s been an adjustment for his ego.

But for the Haygoods, it’s not about who does what, or who pulls more income. Both Jameson and Christy are providers. 

In Jameson’s words, the question is, “What are you providing?”

Dog food, jobs, and babies

Jameson grew up in Springhill, Louisiana, with a mom who played piano and a dad who directed the choir and sang in a gospel quartet with family. If Jameson acted up during worship – which the Haygoods attended every Wednesday and twice on Sundays – he’d receive the “classic Southern mom pinch,” he says. 

For him, that was all part of attending a gospel-preaching church. “From earliest childhood, I was shown and taught the gospel,” Jameson recalls. Still, when he made a profession of faith at age 6, “I did it because I knew it was something everybody did. I didn’t really know what was going on,” he says. 

“Then in seventh grade, I came under conviction … The simplicity of the gospel of ‘those who believe are saved,’ when it hit me, it was a no-brainer that that had not happened in my life. (When) it hits you that it’s in the resurrected Lord and faith in His righteousness that one is saved – when you believe that, you’re saved.”

Christy has a similar story. Her parents volunteered for every mission trip and took her with them to countries like Mexico and Honduras. She was baptized at age 7 but didn’t understand salvation until her mid-teens. “And there were times I didn’t live as close to the Lord,” she says.

After completing undergrad at Mississippi College and medical school at UMMC, Christy knew she wanted to specialize in gynecologic oncology. 

“I felt a desire to take care of women. Being part of their cancer journey is an incredible role. It’s one of the scariest times of your life. I had a faith that would help people through that,” she says. “The Lord does miraculous healings … but our ultimate home and healing is with Him.”

She moved to Birmingham for her training and met Jameson through a mutual friend. They went on an “easy, comfortable blind date with other people,” Jameson recalls, and they discovered their shared faith in Jesus. Christy wanted someone who would encourage her in that faith, which was currently taking a backseat to her training as she worked every other weekend.

Similarly, “at that point, 30 years old and having a rather lucrative pharmaceutical sales job, (I wasn’t) living the way you really should live,” Jameson says. “It was extravagant in many ways, over the top in many ways, a lot of selfish behavior … ” 

Also, his lifelong passion for politics could escalate a conversation into an argument. “I made some big scenes with her close friends and colleagues if they disagreed with me,” he says. 

However, Christy says, “I knew the man underneath that outburst was who I could spend my life with. And a lot of times, it wasn’t that I disagreed with him (in his beliefs). It’s just, sometimes you win the flies with honey.”

The Haygoods themselves have had “some knockdown, drag-out political and theological fights and debates,” Jameson says. “We survived those (and) it’s made us so much stronger.” 

“That was a learning point,” Christy says. “Just because we disagreed on how to apply some of Paul’s letters (from the New Testament)… we (still) both had a very strong faith. It was not a personal attack.”

One thing Christy wrestled with, even after she and Jameson married, was letting go of some of her independence. “There are times when I struggle letting people help me.”

Jameson shares an example from years ago. It’s funny now, but he was not amused at the time: 

“We were coming through the grocery store, and we had bought a big bag of dog food … and she goes to grab the dog food (to put it on the conveyor belt) – and I push it down, I knock it out of her hand, basically. I am not going to have you, in front of these people, pick up this 50-pound bag of dog food … That will be my job, thank you.”

Christy, of course, had picked up that dog food without thinking about it, as she would’ve done in her single years. She and Jameson hadn’t met until their late 20s. “There’s a lot to be said for a woman who lived alone for a long time,” she says.

In 2013, When Christy was pregnant with her and Jameson’s first child, she was about to start her oncology fellowship. Then Jameson lost his job right before the baby was due. 

“That was very scary and anxiety-provoking,” she recalls. “(But) I clearly see this was the Lord’s hand now.”

The Haygoods were about to be first-time parents with no family in Birmingham to help with childcare. Christy also was about to start a super busy fellowship. And Jameson just happened to be unemployed. He was looking at jobs, but a lot of them involved travel.

“We sat down (and talked),” Christy says. “He got the opportunity to stay home (with the baby), and he was willing to do that.” 

“Christy knew what the three-year (oncology) fellowship was going to bring. I did not know the demands she would be under physically, mentally, spiritually,” Jameson says. “(At eight months pregnant) she came out of the blue with this (idea for me to stay home). Had it been brought up at any other time, I would’ve responded very negatively.”

Moving home, prioritizing ministry

Christy told Jameson shortly after they first met: “I’m moving back to Mississippi.” Sure enough, “I moved away single (in 2009), and I came back (in 2016) with three dogs, two children, and a husband,” she recalls.

Her desire to move home “was endearing to me,” Jameson says. “I love her family. I appreciated how loving they were and that we had support. The tough transition was showing up as the stay-home dad. (In) Birmingham, our friends knew me (from years before) as not the stay-home dad.”

Early in their marriage, Christy had asked Jameson what he wanted his job to look like in the future when she’d be a practicing physician. Even then, they knew he would have to take on most of the kids’ school activities. 

“(Med sales) was really not where his passion was,” Christy recalls. “He said, ‘Well, I’ve always wanted to do a radio show.’” 

Unlike the medical field, there was no step-by-step plan for becoming a DJ. But “I knew he could talk,” Christy says. 

A few years after they moved back to Mississippi, he got the chance to get paid for it.

In January 2019, Jameon’s friend James Tulp asked him to sell ads on commission for WYAB, the radio station where Tulp hosted a show. Then in June, Jameson filled in as host for an hour while Tulp was out. 

“It went good enough (that) he asked me back a couple times,” Jameson says. “Then he decided to run for Congress, and he couldn’t host anymore. At this time, he has a two-hour radio show.” The job was Jameson’s if he wanted it.

This was another fork in the road, Christy says: “You have to think, whose career do we need to put priority to? For so long, that had been my career.”

Still, Jameson says, “I wanted to say no. She had to be willing to support me and to pay someone (for childcare).” The show aired two hours a day, five days a week.

“By that point, we had three children, I was established in the community, and my practice was busy enough,” Christy says. “It was an easy yes. We’ll do what it takes (for Jameson to host the show).”

The radio gig was temporary, at least in theory. But after Tulp lost his congressional bid, “he did not come back,” Jameson says. “That was October 2019, and I’ve been there ever since.”

Jameson’s WYAB time slot was initially 2 to 4 p.m. “(That) was such a tough time. (Christy) picked up so much slack. This woman has never shirked a task. It is a pace that is encouraging and challenging,” he says.

“We had after-school and full-time daycare. He’s not getting back to the Madison area till 5:00, not getting home till 6:00. I was praying for a different schedule,” Christy says.

“There were times when I was like, I don’t want you to be working. I don’t want to pick up the kids from daycare. But that (show) is his ministry. It helps me to look at it that way. This is not a financial gain. It’s a heavenly gain. People needed to hear his perspective.”

On “Good Fight with Jameson Haygood,” Jameson brings a biblical worldview to culture and politics. “When you look through scripture, you find all these things that make this country great: individual rights, property rights, sovereign nations,” he says. 

“We also get an explanation for why bad things happen. … Once you see there is real good and real evil in the world, you start to look at how you can mitigate that evil.”

Today, the show airs from 10 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday, which has been a much easier schedule for the family. The show also streams live at WYAB.com, and listeners can find previous episodes at GoodFight1791.com. 

Just as Christy knows “Good Fight” is Jameson’s ministry, he knows oncology is hers. “I get to see it from the inside, how she changes lives,” he says. 

Callings, transformation, and bedtime questions

When asked about their individual callings, Christy says she feels called to care for patients at their lowest point and to see their cancer journey through to the end – whatever that end looks like. 

“As we look at end of life, what’s on the other side?” She hopes her faith can serve as an example for patients who might not know the answer.

For his calling, Jameson references Paul’s words in Philippians 3:13-14 – “forgetting what is behind and pushing forward to the high calling of God.” This applies to work, parenting, and marriage.

“In 2019, a revival came in my life, to get me away from some selfish decisions I had been making, and with the help of mentors, I’ve been focused on slow transformation,” he says. “I don’t want to sound arrogant or like I’ve figured it all out. It’s about stacking a lot of small decisions. 

“Doing it God’s way, selflessly, soberly, taking captive every thought … (That) way produces a joy and a peace and a love between a man and a woman that I did not think was possible.

“(In) a relationship, the new will always wear off. And while our relationship, like any, has been a journey, it has been mind-blowing to see this renewed daily love and desire for (my wife), 12 years into this thing.”

Christy adds: “(Love is) a choice. It’s a choice every day. I love this man. He supports me. I’m the one that’s gone most of the time. I can’t do stuff at the school. (But for him) it’s not a question,” she says.

“When you get that call at 4:30, and you’re just expecting your spouse to be home, and the call is, ‘I’m not going to make it’ – I don’t know if I could do it, honestly.” 

“You do it because you know it’s the best thing for the family,” Jameson says. 

So … how do they do it? Or at least try to do it well? 

Christy listens to “The Bible Recap” podcast during her 20-minute commute. “That helps me stay in scripture. There are days when I feel more connected and days that I don’t.” (Jameson adds what every Bible reader knows: “Leviticus is hard to trudge through.”)

Jameson has “a really important support group” that includes people “in every sector” of his life, he says, but “the chief reason I’m able to do what I do is because of her parents. They have been so supportive and so encouraging about what I have chosen to do. You can tell they’re genuine.”

Though Christy doesn’t have the flexibility of her husband’s schedule, “I always try to be present (for our kids) in the mornings, getting them ready for school and doing drop-offs or walks to the bus,” she says. 

“I also spend at least five minutes with each kid alone at bedtime and ask them two questions: What was the best part of your day? And what was the worst part of your day? I also try to do a weekend a year just me and one kid – usually related to sports, but that gives us some time with just each other.”

Toward the end of this conversation, two of the Haygood children walk in from school and issue loud greetings. The volume decreases after Dad tells them we’re recording – “just like in the studio,” he says – and afterward, Levi tells Mom he found the missing piece to the jigsaw puzzle they’ve been working on. 

Writer and photographer pack up and roll out. Photo shoots and interviews are fun, but it’s late afternoon on a Friday. Time for the Haygoods to focus on their most important calling: family.

Health & fitness focus:
How Jameson and Christy stay healthy

“We both focus on weightlifting and strength training at the Madison Healthplex. What we do now determines how our bodies age, and we want to remain active,” Jameson says. 

“We focus on eating whole foods as unprocessed as possible, with a main portion being protein.

Christy likes to take an hour or two over the weekend and meal prep so she has ready-made lunches to take to work. I try to do (more meal prep) in a session, so I end up with about 15 meals in the freezer.

“We buy local produce at Two Dog Farms as much as possible, and next year we hope our garden with help from Cedar Hill Gardening produces more!” (Jameson’s Christmas gift to Christy was a Cedar Hill gardening consultation.)