A woman without hope when the weekend started, Theresa Nash snuggled with her two sons Ben and Henry in Atlanta on Sunday, overwhelmed at how quickly things had changed.

Both boys hugged their favorite stuffed animals: Henry clutched a red hippo and Ben, a teddy bear in a blue T-shirt.

"It is by the grace of God and all the people in this country and all the angels in heaven and all the people praying ..." Nash told CNN's Don Lemon, launching into a list of folks who helped bring the 10-day ordeal to an end.

The two boys were found Saturday evening in Austin, Texas -- about 950 miles west of their hometown of Roswell, an Atlanta suburb -- after a man who had been watching CNN's coverage of the case called police.

Their father Daniel Cleary, is in police custody. He will be charged with interstate interference with custody, a felony, and extradited back to Georgia, according to Roswell Police Lt. James McGee.

Nash said she didn't know why her estranged husband did not bring the boys home as planned Wednesday from a trip to Tennessee that began December 19. She told CNN affiliate WSB-TV that she had not heard from him since December 22.

Henry -- at 8 years old, the younger, but more talkative of the two bothers -- said he had no idea people were worried about them.

Cleary had told them their mother was in the hospital, Nash said.

Police first issued an Amber Alert for the suspect and his two sons on Thursday, eight days after they were last seen in Georgia.

"Suspect & children are believed to be traveling in a 2002 silver Jeep Grand Cherokee ... traveling on west side of Nashville, TN, on Interstate 40," the alert stated.