Hoda Kotb is reliving the moment she approached her longtime love, Joel Schiffman, about adopting their two daughters. While a guest on People’s Me Becoming Mom, Kotb talked about that particular moment and her overall journey of becoming a mom of two.
While talking on the magazine’s podcast, Kotb admitted that she was “terrified” when she first opened up about her decision to Schiffman. At the time, she and Schiffman were only dating. Now the couple is engaged to be married.
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Hoda Kotb Reveals the Intense Conversation She Had With Joel Schiffman About Adopting Their 2 Daughters
As Hoda Kotb continued, she admitted that at first, she didn’t quite know how to tell Schiffman about her dreams of becoming a mom through adoption. “‘How am I going to say this?’ I don’t know his reaction. I think what I was probably the most scared of was that I knew I was going to do it anyway.”
Kotb remembers sweating as her heart pounded when she first approached Schiffman. “I said to him, ‘Joel, I have to ask you something. I haven’t been sleeping well lately because it’s been weighing on me and I can’t carry it anymore.”
Kotb remembers telling him to take his time when it came to answering the question. “‘So I’m going to say something to you and I don’t want you to answer me right now,’” Kotb continued. “‘I want you to sit with it and take your time. Don’t answer. Just take a week, take as long as you need.’ And he was like, ‘What is she going to tell me?’”
That’s when Kotb told her then-boyfriend that she “would like to explore adoption” with him. “There was like a second in there, I was like, ‘This is the end of a relationship or the beginning of a family.’”
Right then and there Joel told Kotb that he didn’t need a week, he was ready to explore adoption with her too. “In that moment, I fell on his chest and was sobbing. He said, ‘I didn’t know you were carrying that.'”
Kotb admitted it was at that moment that she knew she was with the right man, the man for her, the man who was good enough to put her needs and happiness above anything else.
How special is that? In the end, Kotb and Schiffman are now parents to 4-year-old Haley Joy and 2-year-old Hope Catherine.
And one look at Hoda Kotb’s Instagram proves they are loving every minute of parenthood.
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