The proud mom recently penned a book in her daughter's honor.
Hoda Kotb is opening up about her daughter's health. ET's Rachel Smith spoke to the Today show personality on Friday, at an event where she was being honored by Hudson River Park Friends, and Kotb gave an update on her 4-year-old daughter, Hope, one year after her health scare.
"She's doing much better. It was a scary. It was a scary time," Kotb admitted to ET, before sharing what she learned amid the "terrifying moments" of her daughter's hospitalization.
"I've learned that Hope is stronger than I ever imagined. I also learned that Hailey is a better big sister than I could ever dreamt of, which all happens in a crisis," Kotb said of her 7-year-old daughter. "I've also learned about myself; I thought I had reached my capacity of loving her and didn't realize how much more there was to give to her."
Above all, though, what the health scare really taught Kotb is the importance of not putting her own worry onto her kids.
"When you're a kid you don't know. You're just living [and wondering], 'Why is Mom worried?'" she explained. "I think no matter what the cross to bear is -- whether it's ADHD or whether it's something else, anxiety or dyslexia or something physical -- it doesn't matter. When your kids sees your eyes [worried, they'll think,] 'I'm scared. Something's wrong with me. What's wrong here? What's wrong?'"
"Ninety percent of the time everything's fine, so why am I treating it like it's different?" Kotb continued. "I'm learning to be a better parent, to have a tighter family, and also to realize our kids are brave and strong. Stop propping them up. Give them a break. Man, they need to show their strength. Keep your loving, caring hands off of them so that they can grow."
Amid the challenging time, Kotb posed a question to her youngest tot: What do you want to be when you grow up? Hope's answer? A rainbow.
"Is that not the sweetest thing in the world?" Kotb gushed. "This child is really optimistic."
It's that conversation that led Kotb to pen her latest children's book, Hope Is a Rainbow, which is out now.
"I wrote this for Hope, but it's for anybody who's seeking hope," she said. "I feel like no matter what you're going through in your life, no matter how deep a hole you feel in, no matter how impossible your task feels, if in your heart you do have hope you're fine. You are fine if you have that. It will come if you have that."
"Once you lose hope, that's where things get a little bit scary," Kotb added, "so that's when you gotta have your group, your friends, your faith to kind of lift you up and go, 'No, no, no sweetie, let's all get it in sync here,' because it will happen."
As for Hope's reaction to the book, Kotb recalled her daughter quipping, "Uh, Mom, where is Goodnight Moon? Mom, where is Goodnight Moon?" In all seriousness, though, Hope "loved it."
"I gave it to her, she made a statement. She speaks like a grownup, which is kind of weird because she's just turning five. She's an old soul," Kotb said. "She said... 'I know I'm enough because my Mama loves me.'"
"It was one of those moments where I was like, this child is touched. She's otherworldly for starters," she continued. "But also the fact that she feels that she's enough at that age when you think about how kids are constantly clawing to be seen, and heard, and enough, and to know that she feels that now makes my heart feel totally settled."
Also settled is Kotb's life with her two daughters, as she told ET that she does feel like her family "is complete."
"I think so," she said. "Your heart's ability to expand is beyond measure, so you never know, just because life is funny that way. There are needs and there are things and there are moments, so I never say no to love anyway it comes."
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