Hoda Kotb Calls Daughter's Time in the ICU 'Really Scary' but Says She's So 'Vibrant and Brilliant'
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Hoda Kotb is opening up about her daughter's time in the hospital.
While chatting with Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager, the Emmy-winning journalist, 58, opened up about her absence from the show as she tended to daughter Hope Catherine, 3, who had health complications that landed her in the Intensive care unit and the hospital.
"I feel like, life is one way on a Monday — and we all have our Mondays and we complain about them. We're like, 'Oh, what a crummy Monday,' and then Tuesday rolls around and something really hits hard, and you realize that Monday was actually pretty awesome," Kotb said of the experience.
"So for us, it was little Hope had to go to the hospital, and she was in the ICU for a few days and then the hospital for another week and it was really scary," the mom of two continued. "And she's vibrant and brilliant."
Continuing that she's "over the moon" to have her little one home, Kotb expressed her gratitude for "how amazing people are."
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"That's the thing I learned through all this. The nurses who stood by her all the way. The nurses who checked on her constantly, the doctors who came in, the people who took care of us. I felt like we were held," she said.
Hoda Kotb
Kotb admitted that although she "always talks about gratitude," she said she "found myself not living in that lane because I was scared."
"Then I decided, you know what? Let me think about this for a minute. I have a family who loves me. I have a little girl who's home. I have a wonderful support system. My doctors, who would have done anything to make everything better and they did," she noted. "So sometimes you talk about gratitude, and then when you're pushed to the limit in your life, it's like, 'Do I feel it?' "
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Through it all, Kotb — who is also mom to daughter Haley Joy, 6 — said that Hope has kept true to her sweet and loving self.
"The other day, she just got up from bed, and she was so sweet and cute, and she wasn't feeling great. She had in her hand two little confetti stars. And I looked at her, 'cause I just got out of the shower, so I turned, and she was sitting there. And she said, 'I got two, Mom. One for me and one for you.' "
"And I thought to myself, 'This child, even when she's not feeling good, she still giving everything away,' " Kotb said.
"I feel blessed and grateful, really, really, really grateful. And also anyone who's ever gone through an illness with a child, boy I thought I understood you. But I didn't. You don't until you're sitting in that position. So for every single person going through some stuff, I get it."
