I talked with this young wife and mother recently and realized I needed to interview her for this column. Sharli Moulds Daigle was born October 15, 1984, in Conehatta, Mississippi, to Charles and Judy Jones Moulds. Born about five years later, her sister JoLyn is now married to Jared McElhenney and their children are Jack, 4, and Jordyn, 1. Sharli told me she had a “wonderful” and “simple childhood,” and they also enjoyed a large extended family.
The Moulds’ life was “traditional, rural,” with a “small home” that burned when she was in the third grade in 1994. Living in a rental house, they built their new home in about two years, doing most of the work themselves. Sharli’s dad had a portable sawmill, so he sawed and she helped stack lumber. Today they raise chickens and beef cattle. Mr. Charles Moulds is a Newton County Supervisor of District 3 and Mrs. Judy Moulds, Sharli’s mother, cares for their home and oversees their four chicken houses.
Growing up heavily involved in farming, Sharli grew to love agriculture and was active in Future Farmers of America at Newton County High School, where she graduated in 2003. Thinking she would become a veterinarian, she studied pre-vet medicine and graduated from East Central Community College in May 2006. However, it soon became apparent, as she worked for a time at the Newton County Animal Clinic and observed her cousin’s life as an equine vet, that this lifestyle might not leave much time for home, family, and her horses.
I was amazed to learn her next step was leaving our small, slow place to go to the big city of Dallas, Texas, to become a chiropractor. Though she loved chiropractic, she was extremely homesick and came home after two months. In January 2007, Sharli moved to the University of West Alabama, continued science courses, and was awarded her B.S. in Environmental Science in 2009. Having served an internship with Sanderson Farms in Laurel, she told me, “It was an experience of a lifetime.” They flew in private jets to plants in several states to inspect wastewater treatment facilities.
Sharli had met Joel Daigle from Carriere through a neighbor and they were married December 12, 2009. The next December she was awarded her Master’s of Arts in Teaching Biology. Sharli began teaching at ECCC in February of 2011, before becoming an Environmental Engineer for ESCO January 2012. She remained there until August 2014, when she returned to teaching at EC.
The Daigles don’t fly much now, since Joel has to fly so much in his job as an oil rig crane operator. Actually, it seems to me to be quite a miracle that Joel has managed to be with Sharli for the births of both their little girls, Charly Grace and Tacy Jean. She told me in detail how God worked all that out through His own Providence and a lot of prayer.
Sharli prepared for the birth of her first child by traveling to Hattiesburg once a week for twelve weeks to take natural childbirth classes. She found a doctor who worked with her to help her in this way. But it was not to be the way she had envisioned. Because of a most unusual breech position of the baby, the physician had to order surgery. Sharli had a C-section that night.
Charly Grace was born March 19, 2015, with a hip dysplasia, for which she had to wear a corrective “harness” for the first six months. Though the pediatrician spoke negatively, their daughter was able to go without further treatment, and now does gymnastics and rides horses with no further problems. When she was three months old, their pastor, Rev. Ed Dickerson, prayed, and Sharli believes that God began a progressive healing. Their chiropractor, Dr. Lee Eady, has also helped with that, as Sharli appreciates the role chiropractic plays in helping the body heal itself. Tacy Jean was born at home, with a doula and a midwife, October 24, 2018, and the situation was very different. Sharli said, “It went very well.”
Sharli continued to teach until July 2017, when she and Joel decided it was more important for her to be at home. She began teaching online classes for Holmes Community College in August 2017. Charly Grace will be school age in the fall, and Sharli plans to homeschool her. She trains horses, teaches horseback riding, and even sells homebaked goods. She praised her husband, “Joel is a very hard worker, and fun to be with. He is also very supportive of me in all my ventures.”
Sharli has a passion for working with the horses. She can take a horse that had a bad beginning, that kicks, bucks, and bites, and she can turn that horse around in about a month. Charly Grace started in barrel racing and now practices trick riding. Sharli trained her own horse, named Cash, for barrel racing and hopes to do that again some day.
Sharli’s family has always attended church. At the age of eight, in the Lucern Congregational Methodist Church, she asked Jesus into her heart and was baptized in a church member’s swimming pool. Her mother had been brought up in the Church of God denomination. Sharli attended a Church of God during college, and before her marriage, she began attending the Hudson Chapel Church of God, pastored by Rev. Dickerson. She loved it, especially the music. She commented, “The Dickersons could bring the house down and have Jesus there with you.” She enjoyed feeling “a move of God.”
Joel had grown up attending a non-denominational church in Picayune, Mississippi. In 2009, when Rev. Dickerson began the Decatur Church of God, the Daigles began attending there. One night, the pastor spoke on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and invited, “If anybody wants the Holy Spirit, we’ll pray for you.” (That’s one way Pentecostals express the blessing of being anointed or filled with the Holy Spirit.) Sharli said she went forward, was prayed for, felt the power of the Holy Spirit, and came away from that experience, as she told me, “wanting to do what God wanted me to do for my life.” She continued. “As long as you are obeying the Lord, He’ll use you to reach other people.” She and Joel have also found God to be faithful to provide financially, and says, “He has just opened up ways for us that I never knew could be opened.” Sharli serves in her church, and wants her kids to grow up serving, “to have a servant heart.”
Sharli stated concerning dealing with a bucking horse that may weigh 1200 pounds, “I don’t live in fear.” In the same way, she continued, “The Lord is in control. There are reasons for what He allows to happen.” I believe we could all agree with that concerning the things we are experiencing right now. Though we may not understand all that is occurring, for the Christian, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
