RFx leader Ali Spitsbergen Pediatric RN with $2.5m of medical bills

March 29, 2011 is a date Ali Spitsbergen will never forget. It is the day she gave birth to her “miracle baby,” Anna, but not before almost losing both her daughter’s life and her own. A few months before she was expected to deliver, Ali developed a very severe case of HELLP syndrome, which put her liver under severe stress and indicated she could have a stroke at any moment. She had one of the worst cases of this rare condition the medical staff had ever seen, and they didn’t think they would be able to stabilize her enough to perform an emergency c-section. Her baby’s heart was in distress, and it looked like both Ali and Anna weren’t going to make it.

Against all odds, both of them pulled through, much to the amazement of the doctors and nurses on-call that fateful night. Anna was born at twenty-nine weeks, weighing a meagre one pound and three ounces. To her amazement, the Neonatalogist who delivered Anna told her parents that this tiny baby looked her directly in the eyes when she was born, something she had never seen an infant do before. This little girl was filled with life from the beginning, and Ali says she never lost faith that everything would be okay. Still, the following months were hard, and Anna remained in intensive care for several months. She continued to amaze the medical team in charge of her care, and was even able to go home five days after her open heart surgery. She became known throughout the hospital as the “miracle baby,” and almost three years later, she is still a miracle in her mother’s eyes.

In the weeks after Ali gave birth, she returned to her job as a Pediatric Clinical Instructor at the same hospital where she had her daughter. Her husband took a break from his music career so that he could care for Anna while Ali was at the hospital, but Ali began looking for work she could do from home so she could be with her baby, and be a nurse to her as well. Through social media, she discovered the Rodan + Fields® business opportunity, and after seeking counsel from her father, an attorney and business investor, she decided this was the perfect career move.

She joined the Rodan + Fields Independent Consultant team in February of 2013, and soon was able to fully replace her nursing salary, all while staying home with her miracle baby. “I was able to work my business around putting my baby first, and giving her all the care she needed without worrying about money.” She appreciates how much time freedom the business gave her at a time in her life when she needed it most. She also looks forward to the time she will be able to have with her family in the years to come, thanks to her success as an Independent Consultant. “As a nurse I only got two weeks off for summer vacation. But this past year, my husband and I were able to take an entire summer and spend half the time with his family and half with mine. It’s important to us to put family first and make our time with them matter, and my business lets us have the freedom to do that.”

Anna will turn three years old in March, and has caught up with her peers in development. She is vibrant and full of life, and has come a very long way since March of 2011. But Ali will always remember that day as life-altering. “I realized that day more than ever before that I am here for a purpose, and there is so much I can do to help make a difference in the world and live my life as part of a greater plan.” As Anna blossomed over the past ten months, so did Ali’s Rodan + Fields business. While her initial reason for becoming an Independent Consultant was so that she could work while caring for her daughter, her motivation now includes the desire to fulfill her life’s purpose and support the causes she cares about.

Before she became a neonatal nurse, she spent time volunteering in orphanages, and one of the things that stood out to her was how badly the children were eating. She became involved with a mission training center, which is in the process of providing orphans with fresh, sustainable food sources and teaches valuable skills like horticulture, organic food processing, and aquaponics. The center strives to not only change the quality of the food orphans have access to, but it also teaches life-long, practical skills. “Many of these kids have nowhere to go when they turn eighteen, and this gives them tools to return home with so that they can feed themselves and pass on that knowledge to other orphans.” Ali’s goal is to one day have her Rodan + Fields business fully fund the center.

“I have been blessed in so many ways, and I want to share what the business opportunity has done for my family. Not only did it provide the financial stability we needed at a critical time, but also the freedom to put my baby’s needs first, and enjoy these first years with her. Our entire journey has been miraculous, and I am grateful to be able to pass on the legacy in any way I can.”