say yes to the dress bride rebecca boston marathon

Rebekah Gregory, 29, scrambles to her feet and scoops up 10-month-old Ryleigh from the playroom floor.

"Let's go outside," she tells her daughter and deftly steps over the baby gate, moving with ease toward their Fulshear home's sunny backyard.

Her knee-length dress doesn't even attempt to cover up her artificial leg, a silver-and-black prosthesis that attaches just below her left kneecap.

Much like her leg, Gregory's whole life looks nothing like it did four years ago. On April 15, 2013, a bomb exploded next to her near the Boston Marathon finish line.

Since that afternoon, she has endured dozens of surgeries, including an amputation. She has learned to walk - to run, even - with an artificial leg. She has married, divorced, married again and given birth to a daughter. And as of Tuesday, she will have published a book: "Taking My Life Back: My Story of Faith, Determination, and Surviving the Boston Marathon Bombing," co-written with Anthony Flacco.

Rebekah Gregory married her old college boyfriend, Chris Varney, in 2015. They have a daughter, Ryleigh, along with Gregory's 9-year-old son, Noah. Elizabeth Conley/Staff

"A lot has happened in four years," Gregory says, and she wants to share what she has learned. "I tell people: Just because you don't get blown up by a bomb at a marathon doesn't mean that life doesn't blow up in your face on a regular basis."

Gregory was a spectator at the marathon, part of the crowd on Boylston Street, where two brothers placed their homemade bombs. The explosions killed three people and injured more than 250.

She remembers everything - feeling the street shake, being overwhelmed by pain and, later, hearing someone on the ambulance call out, "We have an amputee."

But it would be 19 months, in fact, before she finally parted with her leg. She's withstood agonizing pain from procedures, rehab and recovery, and even now is still working to adjust.

Rebekah Gregory gets a little help adjusting the bling on her prosthesis outside her home on Monday, March 27, 2017, in Fulshear, Texas. Gregory lost her leg as a result of injuries sustained in the Boston Marathon Bombing. ( Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle ) Elizabeth Conley/Staff

"There are some days where I still just don't even want to get out of bed," she says. On those days, "it's hard because then I feel so ungrateful."

Gratitude is important to her. The slow, excruciating recovery has taught her to be "grateful for crumbs," and to look for glimpses of the good.

Every step she takes is a reminder of what happened in Boston. But, Gregory says, "my blessings still far outweigh my problems."

The fairy tale couple

Gregory says it felt important "to put my whole story out there" - starting with her childhood and abusive father. "My life and my struggles began long before the bombs ever went off in Boston," she says, and much of the pain she has endured is emotional.

The last time she was featured in the Chronicle, she was engaged to Pete DiMartino, the man she'd been dating when the bomb blew up her life. He was with her that day in Boston; they were there to watch his mom cross the finish line. The intense experience made them feel as though they should stay together, and a few months later, DiMartino proposed.

"We were the fairy-tale survivors after this horrible tragedy," Gregory said. "As soon as we announced our engagement, the world kind of took over."

Ellen DeGeneres called. Then the wedding website The Knot offered to throw the couple a dream wedding. It was the happy ending everyone wanted, and Gregory tried hard to provide it.

"Everything kind of escalated," she recalls. "And before long, I was on my honeymoon and we didn't have a thing to talk about, and I realized I had just made the biggest mistake I'd ever made."

The marriage lasted 10 months. Its end, she says, was "the most embarrassing moment" of her public life. "I said, 'I'm never getting married again.' "

But then her old college boyfriend, Chris Varney, came to Houston on business, and they met for dinner with a mutual friend. They hadn't talked in nearly a decade, and Varney believed she was still married. "I don't watch 'Inside Edition' or 'Ellen,' " he said. "I had no clue. I totally expected (Gregory's ex) to be there."

But after she arrived alone, the two reconnected. They married in 2015, and had their daughter, Ryleigh Michelle, last May.

Rebekah Gregory smiles at her husband, Chris, as he feeds their daughter, Ryleigh, in their home on Monday, March 27, 2017, in Fulshear. ( Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle ) Elizabeth Conley/Staff

'Everybody's crying'

Now Gregory lives on an acre in Fulshear with her 9-year-old son, Noah, her husband and their daughter. She travels to speak about four times a month, telling her story to medical groups, women's groups and conferences.

"When I listen to her, I like to look at everybody else," Varney said of his wife's speeches. "Everybody's crying. The things they say to her afterward - it's like she was put on this Earth for this."

But there's still no simple, happy ending. Gregory suffers from PTSD. Recently she nearly had a panic attack at the airport when a woman set a backpack down next to her suitcase: "My brain goes to 'bomb.' "

"There's no day when I'm going to wake up and say, 'Oh, I'm so glad I'm an amputee,' " Gregory said. At home, she uses a wheelchair. She frequently feels phantom pain, as if her foot were still attached. And though she once was determined not to let her injury alter her lifestyle, she now realizes that's not practical: "I just have to accept that there are some things I'm not going to be able to do anymore."