What a difference a year can make. This time last year Kristan Seaford was fighting for her life and doctors had told her family to brace themselves for a final goodbye.
She was in a medically induced coma in the NovantHealth Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, having deteriorated from a flu and strep throat, into life-threatening pneumonia and sepsis.
After six weeks, husband Brook was told the last chance of saving her was to have her hands, her left leg and much of her right foot amputated, People reports.
She would never be the same again but she thankfully did survive, and after numerous surgeries and physical therapy sessions she is getting used to her prosthetic limbs - and so are her five children.
Despite the enormity of her loss and the adjustments she and her children have had to get used to, she's just grateful for the life she has now and is even training for a 5k run in Charlotte in December.
The nerve endings in her arms are still painful but that hasn't stopped her from the training and from teaching regular aerobics classes at the local YMCA.
Knowing how close she came to losing it all, she's found a new gratitude for the things she used to take for granted.
"Sometimes [after a long day] I used to sometimes moan and complain and say, 'I have to put the kids to bed,' " Seaford says. "Now I get really excited and say, 'Oh, I get to put the kids to bed!' "
"To be able to sit in a rocking chair and read to them and sing a song. It's a simple thing, but that's what mums do."
It was her husband Brook who had to make the difficult decision to approve the amputations and he's been right by her side as she's recovered.
It's the love and faith of her husband and children that Kristan's giving thanks for this Thanksgiving.
"I am so incredibly grateful to my husband," she said. "He has stuck by me the entire time and brought me back to life with his faith, prayers and love."
"I'm so thankful to my kids for all they went through and that I get to still be here with them and see them grow up," she adds.
"We get to reclaim this holiday. I am just so grateful that I am here!"
