Audrey Caro
Russell and Stefanie Steffensen are getting ready to take another in a series of leaps of faith.
They will move to Hinsdale, Ill. this summer so he can complete his medical residency in family medicine.
They don’t have any family in the area and aren’t yet sure where they’re going to live.
But this won’t be their first adventure together.
Russell is completing his time at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest. Stefanie teaches kindergarten at Oak Heights Elementary School, and has her administrator’s license.
The couple has three children, ranging from sixth grade to kindergarten.
When they met 16 years ago, Stefanie was working at a job that paid minimum wage and Russell was working in construction.
“I always thought I wanted to go into medicine,” Russell said.
Construction and construction management were good jobs, he said, but he was miserable.
When he mentioned that to Stefanie, she didn’t bat an eye.
“She said ‘Then let’s change it and let’s make our life what we want it,’” Russell said. “She’s a pretty amazing woman.”
That was in 2009, when the couple was living in Orting, Wash. Within a week, he started taking classes online.
“He decided he was going to be an RN,” Stefanie said.
In 2011, with some encouragement from his wife, Russell decided to focus on medical school.
When she opened their laptop, she saw that he had been looking at medical school programs.
“We’re not going to back to school twice,” Stefanie said. “Do what it is you want to do.”
At that point, she decided to go back to school too.
They moved to Sweet Home in 2013, so he could attend COMP-NW.
“One thing we didn’t want is for our children to suffer or resent (us going back to school),” Russell said.
They shared the responsibility of operating a daycare out of their home – she ran it while he was at school in the daytime, and he took over after his classes while she went to school.
Medical school put intense demands on his time, but it was important to Russell to be present for his family.
“My husband never lost sight that the most important thing is family,” Stefanie said. “He always kept me and the kids as his top priority. He was home most nights to put them to bed and for dinner.”
Fatherhood also offered Russell some early experience with something he hopes to do more often with his patients.
“I got to deliver one of my babies,” he said.
He was an EMT at the time, and they were in a hospital with a doctor present. There were some cord complications with their second child and the third one emerged on her own before the doctor could get there.
He hopes to experience the full spectrum of family medicine, to work in the hospital as well as the clinic, and to deliver babies.
Even with the excitement of his future career, it seems his own family is still his top priority.
As the couple finished their breakfast at the COMP-NW Match Day celebration on March 17, where medical students learn where they will complete their post-graduate medical training, he mentioned his afternoon project.
He was going to make a costume for their youngest daughter, who was going to see “Beauty and the Beast” at The Rio Theater with friends that night.
“Dad’s going to see if he can work a sewing machine,” Russell said.