LEESVILLE, Ind. -- A woman rescued her two young children from a sinking SUV that had skidded off a rural road and into a pond Wednesday.

Kortni Peek's harrowing ordeal began as just an ordinary day. She was driving to her parents' house with daughter Ella, 2, and Maggie, 8 months, in the back seat, reported WRTV in Indianapolis.

As she drove around a corner, Peek said her brakes gave out and she couldn't stop the SUV, which plunged into the near-freezing pond.

"I turned onto my knees and unstrapped the baby from the car seat and unstrapped Ella from her car seat," Peek said. "I pulled them both by the pajamas to the front seat and I climbed out the window."

Once out of the SUV, Peek carried the girls to a neighbor's house to get help. Her husband, Caleb, and his friends spent several hours pulling the SUV out of the pond.

"I told the guy I was driving with, 'I don't care if my car is destroyed. I am just glad that my family is all right," he said.

Kortni Peek said she doesn't know if her years of lifeguarding or mother's instinct gave her the strength to get out of the pond. As she sat flanked by the people she loves most, she reflected on what could have been.

"I don't know what hand in it God had, but I know that he granted us another day," she said.