Mom of 7 is about to finish medical school and be a doctor for the military

Raising seven kids is a full-time job in itself, but for 34-year-old Anna Garcia, who is on her way to becoming an OB-GYN for the U.S. military, being a mom is just one of many roles she juggles.

The Texas native is set to graduate from the McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) on May 18. On the day she graduates, she’ll have just given birth to her seventh child, a son named Gabriel Christian Garcia, a few months prior.

Becoming a doctor while parenting seven children is not something the former chef and restaurant worker says that she could have imagined 10 years ago. But, along with her husband and family, Garcia will be moving across Texas to begin her residency at the San Antonio Military Medical Center later this year.

The road to becoming a doctor hasn’t been an easy one for the young mom. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, Garcia spent a year abroad in Mexico before attending the University of Arizona. However, she ended up dropping out of college to raise her eldest daughter as a single mother, according to a McGovern Medical School profile on her.

She moved back to Texas and worked at a restaurant, where she met her husband, Fernando Garcia, who had three kids himself. The couple got married and had three more kids together, creating their very own “Brady Bunch”-style family. In 2010, Garcia went back to college and graduated from the University of Houston-Downtown with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology. However, her plans for her education didn’t end there.

“I always loved science and biology and wanted to be a doctor,” Garcia told UTHealth. “The idea of taking care of people appealed to me, but I was intimidated. Finally, I decided I was tired of doing terrible jobs so I said, ‘I’m going for it.'”

Below, Garcia is pictured with her husband, Fernando, and four of their seven children, including baby Gabriel. The photo was taken on March 16, the day she got her assignment to work at San Antonio Military Medical Center.

In 2014, Garcia won a scholarship to attend medical school through the Air Force. She spent the last four years studying to become an OB-GYN.

Medical residencies typically require long hours and a demanding work load over the course of three to seven years, but, luckily, Garcia has her family’s full support:

“My husband, thankfully, is probably going to stay home for a time. So that will be a big help. I told him, ‘I did it with the other 6…it’s your turn.'”

Congratulations to Garcia and her entire family!