HOUSTON -- A woman arrested for allegedly kidnapping five children she cared for is out of jail.

Rhonda Tavey posted bond after facing a judge, but the children's mother is just happy she’s back with her children.

"I have my kids. That's all I wanted," said Erica Alphonse.

Hours earlier, five children were reunited with their mother for the first time in nearly a month.

"I mean it was a beautiful thing.  It was the most beautiful thing I had in a long time," said Alphonse.

The reunion followed Tavey's arrest on kidnapping charges at a north Houston home.  This was the same home where the three girls and two boys, stowed away their toys and said goodbye to the family they had lived with for close to three years.

On Friday, the judge set bond at $50,000 and ordered Tavey to stay away from the children, whom her attorney said she just wanted to protect.

"She's a little frustrated with the system right now.  She was doing everything that she thought was in the children's best interest," said Todd Ward, State Attorney.

The children and their mother first came to Houston as refugees after hurricane Katrina.  Now Alphonse says she is counting down the days until she can take her family back to Louisiana. 

"That's home.  No place like home.  Like Dorothy said, there's no place like home," said Alphonse.