Hello, and thank you for enjoying my video! My name is Jen Sipe. This video was taken on the Sunday of the most magical weekend of my life. It started the day before on Saturday, when I competed at my very first National Bodybuilding Competition. I was competing in the Bikini Category. I started competing because my boyfriend at the time, Travis, was a personal trainer. He taught me how to lift weights and encouraged me to compete in a show. I said, "Sure, why not? As long as you are training me". :) Soon after that my grandfather who had raised me and was like a father to me passed away from leukemia in September. It was very sad and a huge loss for me. Then, in October, Travis was in a terrible car accident and was badly injured. He passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, 3 days later in the ICU from a pulmonary embolism, just a month after my grandpa died. I watched as the medical team coded Travis, doing chest compressions for 2 hours until he passed away. He had 2 boys, and I had 3 of my own, and I loved him very much, so it was very sad when he passed. At first I stopped my prep for the competition - trying to deal with the shock of losing my grandpa and Travis. But I soon realized getting back on my prep and competing would be a great thing to focus on to get me through my grief.

I am a very positive and strong person. I have been through a lot of hard things in my life. 7 years prior to Travis passing, my mom had passed suddenly as well, which was very hard for me - she was my best friend. After that it was one thing after another for a while - until a friend gave me a book by Louse Hay that helped me learn to forgive and not be a victim. I felt so much and my life started improving, so I continued my personal development work and started learning about the laws of the Universe, such as the Law of Attraction. I was a single mom for a long time without much family. I made a list of things I wanted to manifest, which included things like a loving husband, a new job making more money, a new car, a new house with big airy rooms, and a fit body. I started living from a more and loving perspective and was very happy just living my life taking care of my kids and working as a Registered Nurse, until finally Travis came along after 8 years of being single. I was so excited that I finally met a great loving guy, so when I lost him I was shocked, and knew that it could really do me in if I didn't do the things I had learned in my studying of the laws of the Universe and love, acceptance and forgiveness.

After Travis died, I knew in my heart that I needed to fully dive into focusing on what I was grateful for, all the loving friends and family I still had, and all the things that were going right in my life in order to get through this in a healthy way. So that's just what I did! Every day I made lists of things I was grateful for. I stayed busy, found a new coach, and met my friend McKinli through him as he was her coach as well.

At my first show in March 2015 I ended up placing in every category which was exciting. That same night, McKinli introduced me to her husband's best friend, Sterling Sipe. He was a charming and amazing man, and he swept me off my feet! We started dating, and every day I couldn't believe how blessed I was to have him in mine and my children's life. Sterling had been on a parallel path, had been through a tough divorce. He too was learning to live from a more positive perspective.

One month after meeting Sterling a much better job making twice the money with half the hours completely landed in my lap- I wasn't even looking! A couple months after that I was able to buy a new 4 Runner after driving the same old beat-up car for 13 years. Life was definitely looking up.

Fast forward 7 months later to October 2015- I competed in a second local show where I took 1st place in all 3 categories I entered! That qualified me to go to Nationals. So I continued my prep and worked very hard for another 6 weeks - excited to go to Miami in November and compete against the best in the USA. It was so fun because our very good friends McKinli and her husband Devan were going with us, since McKinli was competing as well! It was the 4 of us having so much fun in Miami. I didn't expect to get first call-outs as it was my first national show and it can be very political. But to my surprise, I ended up getting first call-outs and 7th place in the nation! That is basically unheard of for a first national show.

After having gone through so much hardship- with complete determination to do my best and focus on the positive, it seems as though my life had become magical. The night of Nationals in Miami, the four of us had a super fun night, and the next day, Sunday, we had a photo shoot on Miami Beach to go to. McKinli told me she had booked it since we were super fit from competing and it was such a beautiful location. Really, though, Sterling was the culprit with a plan up his sleeve. I was seriously not very excited for the shoot because I was just done with that kind of thing and ready to relax for a while, but I smiled and graciously went with Sterling to the beach.

The cab driver who drove us was crazy, yelling in some African language into his phone the whole drive until he dropped us off a mile from the beach. As we were walking the rest of the way, it began to rain. We tried to hide under palm trees but my hair was soaked. Honestly, I didn't even care. When we got there, the photographer, Devan and McKinli were already there. The rain had completely cleared out the beach so it was just us which was great for the pics. He started taking pictures of me and explained that the big pieces of cardboard Devan and Sterling were holding up had to do with lighting and the sun. I was obviously out of it from the show the day before because I didn't even question it :). Anyway, when they finished, Lyman, the photographer, asked me if I wanted to see the pics on his camera. I was sure they would be terrible with the wet hair but again, I didn't really care:). As he scrolled through the pics, one by one I saw the words Sterling held behind me, "Will. You. Marry. Me?" I was COMPLETELY surprised and had not expected that at ALL!!! I whipped around and suddenly Sterling was there with a suit jacket on and roses (our friends had buried them in the sand ahead of time). After laughing for a minute, you can see me get all teary-eyed and bend down asking, "Are you sure?" - because I was so surprised and was truly not expecting it. It was seriously so beautiful. I was so in love and excited - it was the happiest moment of my life. And due to the rain there was even a rainbow in the background!! Incidentally, after my mom's passing, she had given me rainbows before. The rainbow on Miami beach behind us as Sterling asked me to be his wife was my mom smiling down on us with her blessing. So that is my story of the most magical weekend of my life. It continued the entire next week - we had some more friends join us in Miami and we all hopped on a cruise ship to the Bahamas for a week.

We had a beautiful destination wedding in Turks and Caicos, and now after 2 years of marriage we are building a new home with big airy rooms and big windows. It seems as if my list of things I wanted to manifest has all come true! If I can share anything with people from this - it is have faith, focus on the good in life, the beautiful, what you have instead of what you don't have, or have lost. And start to realize that you deserve it all - that you are worth it. When you do this I promise the amazing abundance that is always wanting to flow to you will. :)