Hoda Kotb has more than a full plate in life. The "Today" anchor has shown no signs of jetlag from her weeks of covering the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, and instead, has hit the ground running with new projects. Hoda Kotb and her fourth-hour sidekick, Kathie Lee Gifford, both have experienced creative bursts in the past six months.
Kathie Lee has sung her way to the top of the charts again with “Love Me to Death,” the title song from her independent film project of the same name, and also written a book exposing her personal journey of faith, “The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi.” Hoda Kotb had the seed of a book already sprouting within her before becoming the adoptive mom of her beautiful daughter, Haley Joy, and that seedling has grown into an inspiring children's book, “I've Loved You Since Forever.”
In many ways, the literary effort defies the category of a children's book, because parents, grandparents, and extended family are equally “reading through tears” as Savannah Guthrie phrased, relating the feeling of being bonded by dream and decision over mere biology.
Hoda Kotb didn't just want to give her daughter the legacy of her arrival into a family. She wants to give every parent who has ever yearned to adopt the positivity to make the dream a reality. Some regular kids, mommies, and famous friends were happy to take part in sharing the lyrical, heartfelt love on every page.
Not seen, but never invisible
Hoda Kotb describes her story as being about “loving someone you never met before, and feeling someone you never touched.” Surrounded by babbling, happy sounds of children on the March 7 set of “Today,” Kotb recalled the sense of “destiny” in completely knowing that Haley was “out there,” and just waiting for their time and stars to align.
In a profile piece yesterday, Hoda described her now toddling little girl as “a bright light in the sky,” and her name is after Haley's Comet, the rare sighting of the astronomical wonder that was named in 1705, and only passes by every 76 years, once-in-a-lifetime.
Hoda Kotb revealed her longing for adoption to boyfriend, Joel Schiffman, after just four months, and the financier dad had no reservations about fatherhood.
Kotb has vividly shared the moments of the morning when Haley Joy became a reality to hold in her arms. She wrote down the time of 11:54 AM even before she returned the text that read: “She's here.” The time the busy mom most cherishes with her child is in the wee hours of the night, where it's “you and me in the dark.”
One of the very intentional messages of the book is to inspire hope in parents who feel that they have “missed their window” for ever having children.
Hoda Kotb understands those doubts and hesitations in a very real sense, becoming a first-time mom at 52.
“Trust and surrender” is Kotb's advice to hopeful adopters, and to never let fear and doubt stop the effort to try in fulfilling that dream.
The chew of approval
The mom who makes mornings easier for millions of Americans has read “I've Loved You Since Forever” to her daughter.
Right now, Haley Joy “still goes for ‘Goodnight Moon,’” but stopped and “chewed on the elephant pages.” Hoda knew then that “we’d hit our stride.”
It so happens that “La Vida Loca” Latin superstar Ricky Martin reads those elephant pages from the book, and many other celebrities have their favorites, too, including gymnast Simone Biles sharing the pages of owls, and of course, Hoda Kotb's favorite country superstar, Blake Shelton, doing his part, too, along with Ellen DeGeneres and more. Illustrator, Susie Mason, created beautiful images of how “you and I turned into we” from the animal kingdom before the human union of mother and baby conclude the story. The foxes are particularly precious.
Hoda Kotb will still wake families up every morning, and now she can help little ones nod off to sleep at night, and Haley confirms that the pages are tasty.
