Boova Redux

Produced intro and live show start

The produced voiceover opens ('Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper') before Ben starts the live show, joking that nobody told him the show had already begun.

Docket: Boova is back, and a hard question

• Will God provide direction for you to do or say violent things (the Joan of Arc question)?

Ben runs the docket: Boova is back in the studio after months away and will tell his story. Teased for later: an Ask the Pastor question about Joan of Arc — did God direct her toward violence, and was that acceptable? — plus Dear LFTP letters, which get deferred to next week.

The adoption decision

• Was the pivot from trying to conceive to starting the adoption process difficult or a relief?

Boova tells the backstory: he and his wife Gianna were out of town for months completing a special needs adoption of their first daughter. They always knew they wanted to adopt, but when conceiving didn't work, Boova felt like he had failed — until he sensed God redirecting them: 'you get in this process now.' Ben presses on whether the transition was difficult or a relief.

Why a special needs adoption

• Why did you choose to do a special needs adoption as first-time parents?

Boova explains why they chose a special needs adoption: far fewer families wait for special needs placements, both families have special needs adoptions in their history, and they felt uniquely prepared. He contrasts two agencies — a dismissive first intake call and a second agency where a company executive answered the phone and spent an hour with them. The agency didn't serve Iowa for typical adoptions — only for special needs placements.

Training, home study, and telling everything

• What does the adoption training actually prepare you for?

Boova walks through the faith-based adoption training — 'right scripture, wrong application' in places — and the home study, where the caseworker needed everything: trauma, addictions, family history. He chose radical honesty over the instinct to 'put a shine on things,' including a two-hour interview and references from five years of therapists. The agency was stunned by the honesty and approved them, with a one-year trial period of proven health.

Approved, placed, and the baby who chose her dad

Officially approved in May and told placement could take years — the agency had done one special needs placement nationwide in 2024 — Boova and Gianna get a Friday email about an out-of-network baby with a hyper-rare genetic condition. On a Zoom call the birth father grills them ('you need to know a lot more'), then says yes. Down to two families, the baby herself grabbed the paper with Boova's name.

'Christian women talk different'

At the children's hospital Boova beams about God's providence, assuming the birth parents share his faith — then learns they are Vietnamese nail techs who are not Christians but asked for a Christian couple, because 'Christian women talk different': the quiet conduct of Christian clients changed their lives. They sign a fully open adoption — yearly visits, weekly updates — so their daughter knows her Vietnamese 'banh ma' and Boova can walk with the birth father toward Christ.

Meeting his daughter

Boova meets his daughter for the first time in the NICU, where she has fourteen specialists. His wife shows him two side-by-side photos: Boova on his knees in a 24/7 prayer room praying for a child, and Boova praying over his daughter — before and after a promise fulfilled, 'a rock that's a part of the altar.'

Timelines God ignored

• How did the placement timeline end up being so fast?

Ben asks for the impossible-timeline stories: medical power of attorney in 24 hours, the Ronald McDonald House room freed up the day they arrived, an eight-month medication wait compressed to six weeks, Medicaid approved and backdated to July, and the interstate ICPC clearance — expected to take a month — approved by both states in a two-hour window before discharge. The agency said it had never happened in twenty years.

Front row at the concert

Mike responds with a concert analogy: most people never sit in the front row when God does something, and the memory of 'being on stage with Yahweh' sustains faith in the cold breakdowns later. Boova closes by refusing to make it a Boova story — 'there is no part of this that I get to boast in' — and resolves to boast only that God is faithful, citing the 'but even if' of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Sign-off and next week

Ben closes the show with the standing sign-off — 'be faithful in the means, and God will handle the ends' — and previews next week: the Joan of Arc violence question and the deferred Dear LFTP letters.