During Wednesday’s episode of her new podcast, Making Space with Hoda Kotb, the Today co-anchor, 59,

chatted with Erin Andrews and recounted a sweet conversation she recently had with her 4-year-old daughter Hope.

“I was with Hope yesterday, and you know that song ‘Enchanted’ by Taylor Swift? So enchanted to meet you?” she asked Andrews, 45, quoting the lyrics to the pop star’s 2010 hit. “I’m looking at Hope, and she’s looking at me, and the song comes on. And all of a sudden I get [choked up].”

Kotb said to her daughter, “Hope, you know what this reminded me of?” prompting the little girl to remark, “Your eyes are wet!”

“I go, ‘Hopey, the first time you were placed in my arms I realized that was the word,’ ” the TV host continued, referencing her daughter’s 2019 adoption.

Hope then wanted her mom to explain the new vocabulary word. “She asked, ‘What does enchanted mean?’ I said, ‘Enchanted means it’s more than delighted — it’s the biggest word,’ ” recalled Kotb, who is also mom to a 6-year-old daughter Haley.

Not only did the sweet mother-daughter interaction stir up emotional memories of Hope’s arrival into her family, but it made Kotb realize that it’s important to “make space” for little moments of connection amid her busy day.

“I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God. In two minutes we made a memory,’ ” she told Andrews. “It’s just, like, trying to slow the world down.”

Kotb recently shared another poignant memory from Hope’s adoption during an October episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna.

At the time, she explained that she had just attended her high school’s 60th celebration, where she was invited to be a keynote speaker, with Hope by her side.

She told the audience that “one of the best calls I ever got in my life” was when she learned she would be adopting Hope. “The woman on the other end at the adoption agency said, ‘She’s here.’ And I thought, ‘She’s here,’ ” Kotb said.

It was at that moment that Hope ran up to the stage to hug her mom. “And so when I was at my reunion, I said, ‘And she’s here.’ Little Hope came buzzing up on the stage, not afraid of anything, wearing my old high school cheerleading uniform,” she continued. “It was one of those kind of ‘pinch-me’ amazing moments.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

On Thursday, Kotb shared a new photo of Hope and Haley on Instagram as her family gathered together to celebrate Thanksgiving, just hours after she hosted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with her NBC colleagues Al Roker and Savannah Guthrie.

“Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours ,” she wrote alongside a snapshot of the group posing on a couch. Her daughters smiled for the camera as they cuddled with their grandmother, Sameha.