In the haze of that first week after the Sage and Isaac Cook went missing – talking to the police, frantically making phone calls, trying desperately to locate the boys – the first day of school came and went unnoticed by David and Helen Cook. It wasn’t until later that they began to notice the children heading off to school, Sage and Isaac Cook absent from the crowds.

“What’s been hardest, I think, has been seeing little kids hopping off of the school bus at the end of the day and skip home, or the groups of kids waiting for the bus in the morning,” Helen Cook, the boys’ stepmother, said. “We used to do that routine with them every morning.”

The boys, Helen and David Cook had been looking forward to the start of school, which would have been after Sage and Isaac returned from a visit with their biological mother in California. That was late August; the Cook brothers, aged 14 and 9 respectively, haven’t been seen or heard from in three weeks.

While the Bellevue Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department search for the boys, and David and Helen Cook desperately try not to think about the band practices, soccer games and other milestones the boys are missing.

During David Cook’s divorce with the boys’ mother, Faye Ku, education had been a point of contention. As a Harvard graduate, Cook valued traditional schooling. Ku, meanwhile, was a proponent of “unschooling.”

Unschooling is reportedly a method of self-directed homeschooling that puts the drive and responsibility for learning in the hands of the child, according to Home Education Magazine. It was one of many intense views Ku holds, David said; she also believes vaccinations cause diseases.

The courts ruled in Cook’s favor in 2009.

The dust had begun to settle when Ku abducted the two boys in June 2013 and headed to Sea-Tac Airport, where she attempted to board a plane to Taiwan. They were detained by the local law enforcement. Ku was arrested and charged with custodial interference.

After that incident, she was allowed supervised visits with her sons. But, Ku allegedly forged a court order for visitation to bring the boys down to California for a visit Aug. 28.

In a letter police found in Ku’s apartment, Ku blamed the children’s father for trying to control them and asked him to leave them alone.

After years of instability preceding and during the divorce, the two boys were settling in and had built friendships through their extracurricular activities, school and hobbies. Isaac Cook attended his first soccer practice of the year just prior to his abduction, and Sage Cook had told his stepmother he planned to audition for the school play.

“This was going to give them a solid base that they had lacked during the divorce years,” Helen said. “Everything was just coming together, and suddenly they were just ripped from that.”

In the weeks since their abduction, the Cook’s lives have hobbled on.

The International School Robotics team that Sage Cook was a part of had their first meeting of the year, a classmate wrote in a letter to the elder Cook brother.

“All of us at school really miss you,” the teenager wrote. “We’re all trying our best to keep being happy and live our lives, though every once in a while, we start talking about you and get really sad.”

In another letter, Sage’s friend Thomas Shen writes that everyone is depressed that he isn’t at school. “You’ve missed great moments and I would love to share them with you…By the way, I’ll help you catch up every step of the way, especially in school. We will be waiting for you,” Shen wrote.

International School Principal Jennifer Rose and Somerset Elementary School Principal Tara Grey jointly sent a letter to parents at each school urging parents to reach out to school staff if their children are having difficulty dealing with the disappearance of their classmates.

“In my official meeting with teachers to share this news, I made sure that they knew that our counselor was available for any students who may have heard of the situation,” Grey told the Reporter.

The Cook’s are still working to find their sons and bring them home. David and Helen Cook have noticed the drop-off in media attention surrounding the boys’ disappearance, and David has seen traffic on the “Help find Isaac and Sage Cook” Facebook page drop from 80,000 hits daily in the first days after it was established to 25,000 hits per day, he said.

“The word is fading now – we’re trying really hard to trying to keep the boys pictures in front of people and not let the search die down,” he said.

Working with law enforcement in two states has also been a challenge. While the boys were last seen in California, an arrest warrant for custodial interference issued for Ku in Washington means that the Bellevue Police Department has taken the reins on the investigation and search.

“I think also the fact that the incident is split between two jurisdictions has been challenging. That type of coordination, they’re struggling with it,” said Helen, adding that both law enforcement groups clearly have the boys’ best interests at heart. “There’s this sense that nobody’s really on it, driving it. And we’re not the only family in this situation out there.”

The Cooks are offering a $25,000 reward for information that helps lead to the boys’ return. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Bellevue Police Department.