In the middle of the night, Lydia Brownfield's cellphone began to ring. Although she keeps it by her bed, she missed the call. But when her husband's phone rang a moment later, Justin answered it groggily, reflexively offering the greeting he uses at his job as an insurance agent.
But it wasn't a client. It was the Indiana Department of Child Services calling to see if the couple could take a baby.
Justin turned to Lydia, and in seconds they agreed.
"I got up and put on my sweatshirt and went downstairs," Lydia Brownfield said. "We were just ready."
About 20 minutes later, a caseworker arrived with an infant — a baby in desperate need of a bath and fresh clothes. Half asleep, Lydia Brownfield washed the infant and sterilized baby bottles.
Most parents have months to prepare for a new child. Since the Brownfields began fostering nearly three years ago, they've learned to prepare on the fly. They have bins of kids clothes arranged by size. Sometimes the couple knows that a placement is imminent, but other times, there is no warning.
Foster children can show up hungry and tired. They show up reeking of cigarette smoke. They show up with scrapes and bruises.
The state relies on foster parents to soothe wounds and provide a temporary home for children whose own homes grew so unstable they had to be removed from them.
Across the state, increasing numbers of children are entering the foster care system, but the number of foster parents is not keeping pace. In the past year, the number of Hoosier children in foster care rose 25 percent. The shortage of foster families is putting pressure on the pool of people licensed to foster and making it more difficult for caseworkers to find local placements.
"We always are able to manage to find foster homes that are equipped for our children. It's just that often times it's not within our community or it's not within their county," said Angela Smith Grossman, local regional manager for the Indiana Department of Child Services. "We would like to be able to service that child here in our area because the outcomes are better for them."