Cranes experiencing 'so much joy' with family's new addition

The diaper-changing thing, now, that came back quickly. Even though it had been seven years since Ben Crane and his wife Heather had a baby living in their home.

That’s a good thing, too, since life changed dramatically just before Father’s Day when the Cranes adopted newborn Isaiah Crew and suddenly their family numbered six.

“Once he arrived, it's just been like, joy, like so much joy,” Crane says, the smile on his face almost blissful. “We thought this might be the case, but it's brought our family closer together -- like our kids want to now be around us and around Crew.

“I mean, he's the hit of the party. We just had a Fourth of July neighborhood party, and everyone's just like, oh, let me see Crew, you know?”

Crane and his wife had been thinking about adopting a baby for several years. The process began several years ago. They had their home study done, and friends put them in contact with the attorney who helped singer Sheryl Crow adopt her two sons.

And then they waited.

Earlier this year, the Cranes were notified that a mother in Florida had made the difficult decision to put her child up for adoption. She already had two sons and didn’t feel like she could care for a third.

So, Heather made an adoption book, full of photos and information about their family, and sent it to her, hoping she’d understand how much the Cranes wanted her child.

“This a book of kind of what our family is all about,” Crane explains. “Obviously, our faith is important to us and she said that she picked us because of our faith in Christ.”

Once the birth mother’s decision was made, which Crane calls “courageous,” he and Heather spent time with her in Florida. They even took care of her two sons from time to time during the late stage sof the pregnancy. They have also created a webpage where the birth mother can go to see photos of her son.

“I understand that sometimes, you know, you're mourning a little bit, the loss and so you're advised like, hey, don't send her emails or texts with pictures but just let her check in on her own time,” Crane says. “So, we talked about that, and I think it's been good.”

Heather was actually in the delivery room when Crew, who is of Bahamian and Jamaican descent, was born by C-section. But Crane had to leave shortly after the birth mother went into labor to pick up the couple’s two oldest children who were at a camp in Branson, Missouri.

“I got there the day after he was born,” says Crane, who was disappointed to miss the birth. “It’s been sweet. It’s been really sweet.”

Crew’s two big sisters, Cassidy and Saylor, have been helping Heather with nighttime feedings. Big brother Brayden has also gotten into the act, and not even diaper duty can faze any of the kids.

“We’re kind of fighting over who gets to hold him and feed him and all that,” Crane says. “So, it's been, it's been really fun.”

Crane and his wife talked to their three children before embarking on their adoption journey. They told them what they were considering and asked how each of them felt.

“Not saying you guys are going to make the decision, but we just want to know your heart and your thoughts about it,” Crane recalls telling them. “And they all actually had different opinions.

“One of them was like, I don’t know. And then one of them was like, well, maybe he's a little young for our family. And then another was like, oh, I'm all in. So, we were like, how can a three-way call be a split?

“And now everyone is just like bliss.”

The 43-year-old Crane says he thought about the prospect of having a child in elementary school when he and Heather were starting their second lives on PGA TOUR Champions. But he can’t imagine not having Crew in their lives now.

“It’s been the sweetest thing our family has ever been a part of,” Crane says.

The Cranes also spoke with neighbors who adopted a baby at a similar stage in life, bringing him into a family with siblings of similar ages. They talked about the joy their son has brought to their family, and the Cranes now understand.

“It’s funny looking back and that's what the family who we talked to about it -- they're like, we cannot imagine our family without this boy that they adopted,” Crane says. “They were like, I'm promising you that's how it's going to be for you guys.”

Turns out, truer words were never spoken.