Fostering kids.

My wife and I have decided that we are going to foster kids in the near future. We both love kids and right now fostering might be the best choice for us. Ideally having a child the old fashion way would be the way to go but with our age creeping up and our health not being the greatest we have decided to go the fostering route. I have my reservations about it but the pros outweigh the cons. There are so many children out there that get lost in the system and have no chance of success in life because of the hand they are dealt. We would like to deliver some stability to these kids life and make ourselves happy in the process. The bad thing is when we may or may not have to hand the children back to their parents. I told my wife that it will not be easy to do that but my wife swears to me that she can handle it.....I'm not sure I will be able to..lol. I get attached quickly and with my anxiety problems I will always worry for any kids that we may have to give up. We ultimately want to adopt so we may be able to eventually adopt the kid we foster. November we begin taking the mandatory 39 hours of classes that are required to be considered for fostering. Actually we were able to take one class already and it's basic common sense type stuff....it got me thinking though....why don't new natural parents have to take these classes? There are so many young parents that should have to take these classes. Going to school for teaching the last couple of years have really opened my eyes to how terrible some situations are. My teaching advisor at UC told me a story about how he used to encounter children while he was teaching that were basically starving and he would bring crackers to class and just let them eat those. That kind of stuff really gets to me. Some parents are so concerned with their drug habits or their terrible boyfriends/girlfriends that the child just gets ignored. They have no clothes to wear, they don't eat right, they see things that no kids should see. One of the things that the class brought to my attention is that the kids you foster will have knowledge of what particular drugs look like or perhaps what a gun looks like....that is so depressing. I would gladly bring a child into my home to avoid them having to go through with that. I worry though that the child, when told that they have to go back to the natural parents, might express feeling that they don't want to go back....how would you deal with that. I'm all for rehabilitation and giving the parents the chance to fix their lives but when presented with giving them back....it will be hard. My wife has eased my worry by making me realize that we are changing their lives for the time they are here and that is a very good point. I am looking forward to taking the classes (even though they are 3hrs long) and hope that Robin and I can make a difference in some child's life.