Hoda Kotb is still waiting “patiently” on the adoption process. The TODAY show anchor, 57, clarified she and fiancé Joel Schiffman had not welcomed a third child yet after sharing photos to social media with 2-year-old daughters Hope Catherine and Haley Joy, 4, both wearing shirts reading “I’m the big sister.” In an interview with PEOPLE, Kotb was asked what she was trying to tell her followers with the photo posted on Sept. 27.
“Nothing! I’m just trying to tell you that I bought two shirts on Amazon, OK? That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” Kotb answered with a laugh. While she and Schiffman are “discussing” another member of the family, Kotb insisted the T-shirts were nothing but a shopping error. “You should see how I shop, OK – you’d be embarrassed,” she explained. “… I buy everything on Amazon, I just hit ‘get two,’ so I got two. I was like, “Oh, they both say big sister. OK!’”
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When it comes to adopting again, Kotb added it was something she and Schiffman “hope” for, noting, “If it comes, it comes. So we just wait patiently.” The NBC anchor previously gave an update on the adoption process on The Drew Barrymore Show last year, explaining, “We filled out the paperwork and say it’s in God’s hands, like, come what may. I just know your heart’s ability to expand blows my mind, you can fit so much love in there.”
She then shared on Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen last July that COVID had stalled the adoption process to a certain extent. “You know what’s funny about the adoption stuff that’s going on now? Apparently, it’s really slow during this time, during COVID,” Kotb told Cohen. “I thought it would be a different game.” She was told by her adoption agency that many people who normally would be ready to place their child for adoption are “holding onto things because they don’t have anything in that moment” of the pandemic. “That’s what I’ve heard from our agency, everything’s slow,” added the journalist. “But they say wait wisely and just be, so we’re just gonna be.”
