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Nearly six months after their abduction at the hands of their mother, the Cook brothers are back home in Bellevue.

“Helen and I are overjoyed to have Sage and Isaac back at home. The boys are healthy, but have been through a difficult experience. They have begun to make contact with their friends, and we are confident that in time they will heal,” the boys’ father David Cook said in a statement.

Sage Cook, 15, and Isaac, 9, were located by the FBI in Mexico late last week and reunited with their father and stepmother after an international search by multiple law enforcement organizations.

The brothers were last seen at the end of August, when their father — who has legal custody — put them on a plane to Los Angeles for what he believed was a court-mandated supervised visit with their mother.

It is alleged that after the boys’ arrival in Los Angeles, their mother, Faye Ku, illegally took them across the border into Mexico from San Diego. Ku had previously attempted to board a plane to Taiwan with her sons in 2013. She was subsequently charged with custodial interference and only allowed supervised visits with her sons.

The suspect allegedly intentionally left behind personal belongings at her Lakewood, California residence that would prevent law enforcement from tracking her whereabouts, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. In a prepared letter, she blamed the children’s father for trying to control them, and asked him to leave them alone.

Ku allegedly acted erratically in the past and fought with her ex-husband, David, over the boys’ education.

She was reportedly an advocate for “unschooling,” a method of self-directed homeschooling that puts the drive and responsibility for learning in the hands of the child, and didn’t want the boys enrolled in any formal education system.

Unschooling was one of many intense views Ku holds, David said; she also reportedly believes vaccinations cause diseases.

During the boys’ disappearance, David and Helen Cook pushed to spread the word about the case in hope that someone, somewhere would spot the boys. Given Ku’s past actions and connections, law enforcement suspected from the start that she would attempt to flee the country with the boys.

The couple, their family and friends wrote notes and posted photos several times a week to a Facebook page called “Help Find Sage and Isaac Cook.” In them, they lamented the occasions they were missing — the first day of school, soccer practice, robotics team meetings, Sage’s birthday and Christmas.

The couple thanked their friends, family, coworkers and well-wishers for their support during the boys’ disappearance.

“They kept our spirits up, offered help and hope, and always let us know that Sage and Isaac were not forgotten,” said David Cook.

After years of tension-filled divorce and custody proceedings, the Cooks felt everything was settling and they were moving forward.

“Everything was just coming together, and suddenly they were just ripped from that,” Helen Cook told the Reporter in September.

The kidnapping investigation finally came to a positive conclusion due to the efforts made by and extraordinary partnerships with FBI’s Legal Attaché (Legat) office in Mexico City, the FBI’s Los Angeles Division, the FBI said in a statement. The FBI also worked closely with the Bellevue Police Department, the Lakewood Station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Legat pursued a series of leads to identify their location and passed information to Mexican officials, who took prompt action, according to the FBI.

The Cook boys have since been reunited with their father and stepmother and returned to their Bellevue home.

Ku is expected to be arraigned on Feb. 16 on international parental kidnapping charges.

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