Stephanie Decker, a mom saved her children in exchange of her legs

Stephanie Decker, a 36 year-old mom from Marysville, saved her children from a collapsing house crushed down by a tornado but lost both her legs as she sheilded her children by her body.

She binded her two children together with a blanket and stood between them and falling debris. Decker has lost one leg above the knee and the other above the ankle, her husband confirmed Monday. She is now in stable condition at a Kentucky hospital, while her 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter survived Friday’s storm unhurt.

"I have to live for my kids," Stephanie Decker remembered telling herself as she waited, bleeding

“I told her, ‘They’re here because of you.’ I let her know that nothing else matters," husband Joe Decker said over phone from the University of Louisville Hospital. "I said, ‘You’re going to be here for your kids, and you get to see them grow up.’” Joe Decker was a teacher at Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg when the tornado hit. While his school was locked down, Decker traded text messages with his wife, urging her and the kids to retreat to the basement of their Marysville home. He revealed:

“Then she sent me a text saying the whole house was shaking, and I texted her back and asked her if everything was OK. I asked her about six or seven times and got no response. That kind of freaked me out.” He later learned that Stephanie had seen the tornado approaching across the family’s 15-acre property, and wrapped her kids in a blanket before lying on top of them. Decker continues:

“She said she felt the whole house start to go, and then she felt like it moved them about before it kind of wedged her in there, but she was able to keep the kids from moving away.” Stephanie has been scheduled for more surgery on her legs again this Thursday, a hospital spokeswoman confirmed. Good luck to her and the family – and talk about one brave mom.