That's the tough part of being a foster parent. Lots of emotional highs and lows.
Prepare yourselves for when you finally do get a placement. Now just imagine that you've taken in a child and cared for them for years and become very attached. Then one day after you've already sent them off to school, you get a call from the agency telling you that circumstances have changed and the child is either returning home or going to live with relatives and you will most likely never see them again.
It doesn't happen often but it does happen. I have seen it. I've had to go pick kids up from school and return them home as a worker. We've had that happen as foster parents where we cared for a girl for 6 months and became very attached. With less than 24 hours notice, we had to say goodbye and never saw her again. That's a feeling that never gets easier.
We had a little girl for over a year living with us. I would have gladly kept her until she aged out. But without much notice, we loaded her up in a worker's vehicle in the morning with all her things and said our goodbyes, hugged, then watched her drive off. Nobody can ever prepare you for that.
There's specialized counseling available for the children as it's also hard on them going through the motions of a. Losing the foster parents and family they're attached to and b. Dealing with the excitement of going home. But there's really not much support for the foster parents once the child is gone.
It's also very hard on the kids as on one hand, they are going home but on the other hand, they are losing their whole life with you including their friends at school, new school and just the whole change in routine.
But quite often, once they are gone, for the foster parents, that's it. You say your goodbyes, send them off, gather yourself up emotionally and keep plugging away as best as you can knowing that somewhere out there, there's a child who you cared for and loved that you may never see again. All you can do is hope and pray that somewhere out there, there's a child who you you loved and will never see again and hope they're doing alright.
I still struggle even months later with losing our foster daughter. We had her for a year and a half and new for weeks that she was going home. But when that day finally came, I remember loading up her things in the vehicle, giving her a hug and walking away before bursting into tears. Then having to gather myself up to go back in the house and take care of the other kids. Her name is Cheyne (pronounced shine). Even now, every time a commercial comes on tv with the song "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine", I get choked up for a few seconds as I used to sing that to her.