A mother who was arrested in Lebanon after flying to Beirut with a 60 Minutes TV crew to retrieve her 'abducted' children has told of her joy after reminiscing with her kids in a series of online video calls.
Sally Faulkner can be seen speaking with her two eldest children Lahela, 11, and Noah, 9, about their time together in Australia in a post shared to Instagram recently.
In 2015, their father and Ms Faulkner's estranged ex-husband Ali Elamine flew the brother and sister to Lebanon, sparking a failed operation to retrieve them from the streets of Beirut backed by a Channel Nine TV crew.
Ms Faulkner said she was about to 'explode with happiness' after showing Lahela how she still treasured her daughter's possessions and was keeping them safe.
'I pulled out Lahela's jewellery box and showed her - which gave her a big smile,' Ms Faulkner wrote.
Sally Faulkner, pictured with her children Lahela and Noah in Australia before her estranged husband kept them in Lebanon
'She couldn't believe how I had kept everything of theirs. My heart is literally about to explode with happiness... I literally feel like I have their heart, mind and soul back.'
The mum - who has had three more children in Australia - said she and her eldest children also went through old photos from before they moved to Lebanon.
'Noah pulled out an old iPad filled with old photos they both said they would look through together everyday to remember me by,' she said.
'By doing this it was as though their memory had been preserved... they remembered every detail of those moments where I had grabbed the camera and taken their photos.'
Last year, Ms Faulkner said she was going to 'close the curtain' on her online presence for a while.
'I am doing this for a few reasons,' she said. 'When I started this page I had two followers - it was a blog page where I uploaded thoughts and it was a place to pour my grief to, when I knew no body else around me understood my sadness or could bare to listen anymore to my words.
She said she hoped her children would 'one day stumble across and know I thought about them every moment and never stopped loving them'.
Lahela and Noah (pictured) were all smiles in an earlier emotional reunion with their mum Sally Faulkner (inset, top right)
Lahela (pictured left) and Noah (right) pictured at Noah's birthday celebration in Lebanon
'I feel there is enough said for a while about my emotions and feelings around my situation and the paper trail is long.
'It's time to really start focusing on building myself back to the person I do badly want to be and once was,' she said.
She added that she wanted to immerse herself in family time 'and absorb every moment that's possible to absorb - good and bad'.
Ms Faulkner ended that
