HOUSTON -- With her attorney at her side, the woman accused of kidnapping five children she took in after Hurricane Katrina, acknowledged that the children aren't hers, but she hasn't stopped fighting for them.

WFAA-TV

Rhonda Tavey and three of the children she's accused of kidnapping.

“I'm motivated by my love. That these kids know with me, they always have a home,” Rhonda Tavey said during an interview on Monday.

Her remarks came just hours after attorneys filed the paperwork as Tavey seeks to gain legal custody of the five kids she's spent the lat three years helping to raise. Three girls and two boys, who Tavey alleges to have been abused by their own mother.

“We allege that there is abuse. Physical and emotional abuse,” said attorney Todd Ward.

It's that alleged abuse that Tavey's attorney said led her to flee Houston with the children and remained on the run for about a month.

Last week her run ended when she was arrested at her mother's home in Houston. She has been charged with five counts of kidnapping.

The children were returned to their mother, but she must remain in Houston while Child Protective Services investigates the abuse allegations.

Soon after Tavey announced she was seeking custody, the kids' mother Erica Alphonse and her attorney fired back. In addition to denying the abuse allegations, Alphonse said and efforts to take the children from her are misguided and unjustified.

“I'm scared. I'm worried. I'm upset. But mostly I am confused,” said Alphonse.

Alphonse said it is love that motivates her to keep her kids. The woman accused of kidnapping them said the same thing.

“I would (lie) down and die for these kids,” said Tavey.