You are right that you need to go into it with your eyes open. At least in my state it took about a year to get certified to foster and you set boundaries on what you can handle. For instance, I knew that I would not be equipped for a certain level of trauma/medical issues and indicated that. You still end up dealing with state agencies, family court, crazy relatives and lots of other stuff so it's not all sunshine. But in our case it was totally worth it.
