Randy Brooke

After years of fighting for them, Kelly Rutherford‘s kids are coming home.

The Gossip Girl alum, 46, has been granted sole legal and physical custody of her two children – son Hermés, 8, and daughter Helena, nearly 6 – temporarily, PEOPLE reports. A California judge ordered her kids back to the United States from France, where they had been living with father Daniel Giersch since 2012.

According to a court order filed Friday, the children will be sent to Los Angeles, and their mother will keep their passports.

Earlier on Friday, Rutherford said that Giersch would not allow her see their kids after arriving in France for her latest trip Thursday. As well, she claimed that the German businessman won’t let her be with them unless she turned over their U.S. passports.

Meanwhile, Giersch’s attorney said he was asking Rutherford to give the passports to a third party.

But Rutherford claimed Giersch asked her to give them to another one of his attorneys, whom is someone she does not know and has not been approved by the court.

The actress has been fighting their parenting plan since 2012, when a California judge ruled that since Giersch’s U.S. visa had been revoked, the children would live with him in Monaco and Rutherford would fly out to visit – even though they technically shared joint custody.

Giersch was court-ordered to reapply for a visa, but he never did.

“I told my son, ‘Mommy is still fighting for you,’” Rutherford said. “My children, not only were they taken away, but they were sent to a foreign country. I don’t even know how you explain to someone what it feels like.”

“I’ve always wanted my kids to have a relationship with him, and I’ve really only encouraged that all along. When I went into court, I never asked for money, and I never asked for full custody,” she said. “I just wanted what was right for them and their well-being moving forward. And what happened over the next six years was the most surreal, bizarre, unimaginable thing.”

In an attempt to help other broken families in similar circumstances, the actress created the organization The Children’s Justice Campaign.