I think what I am learning from my classes now is to be open to change and to try to encourage and engage my clients to do the same.  It may be a difficult task as I have my own ideas on how to meet with my clients and yet I am being exposed to different ways to do this.  One of the current challenges I am facing is working with ICWA; their goal is to maintain the Indian child with their family; however it is not always so easy as often the child’s parent is no longer connected to their family who are no longer connected to the tribe so in effect, we skip the parents and move on to the extended family for that connection.  The difficulty I face is that staying or introducing a child to their extended family may not always be healthy because that family may be living the same life as their parents who would be dysfunctional or unhealthy otherwise the Department wouldn’t have gotten involved.  So what do we do; do we work at keeping the child connected to the tribe and introducing them to a family member they may not know or supporting them in their current placement which is probably their permanent placement choice and the child may not have any connection to their tribe.  My dilemma is whose interest is most important?  Do we consider the tribe because they want to keep their young tribal members connected because in all cultures it is our youth that will be able to make changes and strengthen our culture or is it the youth’s best interest.  Often they may be more connected to a non-tribal member family; i.e. their foster family and we don’t want to disturb that connection either as that is their strongest connection.  What do we do?  Best interest of child or best interest of tribe?