Happy homecoming ends twins' ordeal

"Today has been the most beautiful day in the world," said grandmother Judy Boggs. "They're just gorgeous."

Alyssa Ann Allen and Alex James Allen were reported missing Nov. 1 after their father failed to return them from a scheduled visit.

"They chanted the whole way home how they wanted to come home," Boggs said of her children.

"It feels great to be home," Alex said.

The children's father, Alvin Allen, 49, was caught with them near the Florida-Georgia state line on Tuesday after a multi-state search.

Police said a Georgia state trooper spotted Allen's vehicle on southbound Interstate 95. Allen was wanted on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and neglect for taking the children without their asthma medication.

A judge on Wednesday granted an order allowing Boggs to regain custody of Alyssa and Alex and return to Erwin.

"I'm so thankful for all the prayers and the good lord taking care of those babies," the twins' grandmother Judy Boggs said Wednesday. 

The twins' brother, Aaron Allen, 15, said the stress of not knowing where the children were caused his mother not to eat.

Boggs said she and Alvin Allen were scheduled to go to court next week for a custody hearing, even before he disappeared with the children. She currently has temporary custody of the children. 

"So many days of not knowing – of not knowing where they were, what was happening to them or what was going on – But they are home now and everybody is happy," she said.