Zuleyma's painting

I've been trying to slow down Zuleyma's weight gain, almost from the day I delivered her, 15 years ago. Now, at 15, she weighs 258 pounds, and both of her parents weigh close to 300 pounds. Even at her first newborn visit at 2 weeks of age, she was already off the charts for weight. At first I thought it was overfeeding, then lack of appropriate exercise, or fattening school lunches, and more recently I've come to believe it's a genetic force I can't beat. At least, I do not want to be so frustrated with her weight and my own personal feeling of powerlessness that I stop seeing Zuleyma as a girl, a unique person who is trying to find her way in this world. I am not willing to give up the unique relationship I have with her, caring for her from conception until adulthood. It's too easy to dehumanize people with obesity or with any other problem and look at them only as their problem. When I walk by Zuleyma's 2nd grade painting in the hallway, I see the river winding through the complex topography of our city and I smile.