Shelly didn’t always want to be a doctor. She graduated from BYU in math education. However, after teaching for one year and having their first child, she and her husband decided she should go back to school — medical school.

“He came up with the idea that he could own a medical clinic, and I could be the doctor there,” Shelly said. But with two kids at the time, she wasn’t so sure it could work. After praying, attending the temple, and receiving encouragement from her husband, they felt good about the decision.

So, they started a trial run. Shelly took organic chemistry and anatomy during spring and summer at BYU and then went to the University of Utah during the fall and winter, all while having her third baby.

She took the MCAT following that year of prerequisites, applied to medical schools and got into the University of Utah medical school. That was their answer.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it, it was more just I don’t think we can do it,” Shelly said.

Through all this, she and her husband put the Lord and their family first. “It was much harder than we ever expected but much better as well,” she said.

When Shelly started medical school, her husband served with the Provo police force as a swing shift detective. He was home with the kids during the day, cooked, cleaned and did the laundry. When Shelly got home from school, the family ate dinner, her husband went to work and Shelly put the kids down for bed — then she studied.

Listen to a clip from Shelly’s interview to hear what her experiences were like balancing family life and being in medical school and residency. 

Shelly said the underlying theme through this time was that the Lord provided a way for them to accomplish their goal.

“We just felt really good about it along the way,” she said. “We kept having kids. We would serve in any church calling we were given … and always He’s taken care of us.”

During medical school and residency, Shelly and her husband balanced their schedules in caring for their children. In her last two years of medical school, Shelly’s husband quit the police force and stayed home with the kids — now four.

They thought residency would be their “time to move away.” However, because they wanted to come back to practice in Utah, they realized it would be better to stay and build “ties here and be in the community already.”

Just a few days before match day — when medical students rank the residencies they want — Shelly switched their first rank to the Utah Valley Provo residency, which ended up being their match.

Shelly and her family moved to Lindon, where they currently live, and continued balancing work and family life. Shelly said her residency was “very family friendly.” Sometimes her family would eat lunches and dinners together at the hospital cafeteria. “That’s just how we made it work,” she said.

During her third year of residency, now balancing five children, Shelly and her husband prepared to open the medical clinic. Her husband did a rotation with her residency and completed a healthcare management certification from the University of Utah, all to help them open their medical clinic.

Upon finishing her third year of residency, Shelly said her husband was ready to open the clinic. During her first year of practicing as a family doctor, they had their sixth baby, and the clinic started renting a small building in Provo.

“For the first six months, we didn’t pay ourselves. We put everything into the business,” she said.

Shelly said her family has been blessed — busy but blessed.

“There are no mom jobs or dad jobs in our family. Whoever’s home makes dinner. Whoever can do the dishes does the dishes,” she said. “Our kids have grown up seeing a family where you work together to be successful.”

There are sometimes stereotypical roles moms and dads play, Shelly said, but moms can go to work and change the oil in the car, and dads can do the dishes and do their daughters’ ponytails.

“It doesn’t matter. You can do anything,” Shelly said. “I think we have to teach our children to not be limited by stereotypes. I think it has to be done by example. I don’t know how else to do it.”

On top of their busy schedules working as a doctor and managing a medical clinic, Shelly and her husband have held various church callings. Currently, Shelly serves as her ward’s Relief Society president.

“I feel like I’m walking on a tightrope all the time, and mostly, I’m almost falling off,” she said. “But the number one way I balance is God comes first, family comes next and then my career. And I have found if I do that, it just all works out.”

Shelly said her family’s experiences have taught her sons and daughters valuable lessons.

“It’s given them the mindset that they can do anything — be anything,” she said. “There are no defined roles, you do what works best for your family. And if that’s staying home, that’s great.” 

Shelly hopes her example teaches women they can be a mom, a doctor and hold a church calling — “You’re not giving up one for the other,” she said.

Pew Research Center did a few surveys over the years on work and motherhood. While numbers proved a majority of Americans (73 percent) believe an increase of women in the workforce is positive, adding motherhood to the mix changes those numbers.

“Only 21 percent of adults say the trend toward more mothers of young children working outside the home has been a good thing for society,” the Pew Research Center reports. “Some 37 percent say this has been a bad thing, and 38 percent say it hasn’t made much difference. And women themselves report feeling stressed about balancing work and family.”