Hoda Kotb’s First Month of Motherhood Has Looked Nothing Short of Magical

When the Today show’s Hoda Kotb went through breast cancer treatment nine years ago, it left her unable to have children of her own. However, that doesn’t mean she couldn’t adopt!

With Kotb’s on-air announcement of adopting her infant daughter Haley Joy came many tears of joy from her TODAY co-workers.

“One of the things in my life I’ve always wanted was to be a mom,” she explained. “Sometimes in your life, things just don’t work out for whatever reason, so you say, ‘Well, I wasn’t meant to have that.’ But it was really hard to come to terms with it.”

“There was a hole,” Kotb said. “People would say, ‘Oh, do you have kids?’ And I’d feel like, ‘Ouch.’ I knew inside it was supposed to be for me.”

“Finally I said to myself one day, ‘Why can’t I? Why not me?’ I had this ache in me that I couldn’t push away anymore.”

Click through the slideshow to read more about Kotb’s emotional journey through her first month of motherhood.

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After her announcement, Kotb shared the very first of her little bundle of joy via social media. 

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The first day of motherhood seemed like a pretty happy one for Kotb, who also posted this sweet message to her daughter.

“And then my soul saw you and it kind of went, ‘Oh there you are. I’ve been looking for you,’” it read.

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“Be still my heart. My prayers have answered,” Kotb wrote on Twitter. “And as a friend said today– she is ‘right on time.”

The baby girl was born on Valentine’s Day. Kotb is taking time off from the Today show to spend time with her new daughter. 

“I wake up sometimes and go, ‘Oh my God, I have a baby!’” she said. “But it feels totally real. I guess if you’ve been waiting this long for something, and you wish for it, pray for it, hope for it, wonder if it will ever be, and then it happens, nothing’s more real. Nothing.”

“It’s one of those things where you think you’ve done it all, you think you’ve felt it all,” she added. “But I just didn’t know that this kind of love existed.”

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The day after Kotb announced her excited news, she shared a photo of a giant stuffed Snoopy from Bravo’s Andy Cohen.

“Thank you Andy,” she wrote. “As soon as she wakes up .. she will meet her first gigantic Snoopy.”

 

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Cohen wasn’t the only celebrity to send a gift to Kotb and Haley. A week later, Kotb shared a photo of two adorable onesies from Jimmy Fallon and his wife Nancy.

“She’s up late watching you.. burping,” Kotb wrote on Instagram. “It’s awesome.”

Along with gifts from Jimmy Fallon, Haley also received a rocking chair from Gayle King, a rocking horse from Wendy Williams, an adorable pink knit hat from a Today show producer’s mom, and even a pair of tiny cowgirl boots from Carrie Underwood.

Sounds like Haley is one loved baby!

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In early March, fellow Today show anchor Al Roker shared a photo of his first time meeting Haley.

“If you want an #antidote to everything going on, look into the face of heaven,” the famous weatherman wrote. “Fell in love with @hodakotb beautiful #HaleyJoy She smiled!!”

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The next day, Kotb regrammed Jenna Bush-Hager’s photo feeding Haley. “Nothing sweeter than @jennabhager’s tears as she feeds my daughter,” Kotb wrote. “xoxo won’t forget this day.” 

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It wasn’t long before the rest of the Today show crew and the Kathie Lee and Hoda crew made their way to baby Haley. Fellow anchor and Haley’s “uncle” Matt Lauer paid a visit on March 10.

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Even new mom Savannah Guthrie paid Haley and Kotb a visit — and she apparently taught Kotb how to swaddle. 

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While Kotb said she left her boyfriend Joel Schifferman’s name off the adoption paperwork, she says that’s just to simplify things and that Haley will still call him “Dad.”

“Haley will call him Dad,” she told PEOPLE. “[Joel] has been so great. He’s such a great dad and a great influence.”

The couple looks happier than ever during their first month of parenthood!