Having a baby is such an exciting time for a parent, whether it be their first, second or third child.
If it’s not your first child you can’t help but feel like you know it all and are undoubtedly better prepared physically and mentally.
But for mom Taylor Dunnavant her second pregnancy was so much different form her first, she couldn’t help but wonder that something might be wrong.
The Missouri mom was in pain and losing weight throughout her pregnancy. As her first child had been a girl, she was convinced her second must be a boy.
As she, her husband Chris and 5-year-old daughter Brooklynn looked forward to the new addition, the special day came when the baby was ready to enter the world.
The couple wondered, as all parents, what their new bundle of joy would look like, what color eyes and what color hair.
When baby Noralynn arrived, the nurses told her she had a full head of hair, unsurprising as Brooklynn had been born with a full head of thick brown hair.
But when she was handed her new baby girl, something shocked the whole family.
“When he set her down, all I could do was yell, ‘Oh!'” Taylor tells CafeMom. “Our baby had hair alright, a head full of hair, white as snow. I looked at Chris and all I could say to him was, ‘She has white hair.'”
Taylor said she started shaking which she believes was due to shock, rather than having just given birth.
A million questions were floating around her head with the overwhelming fear of what her firstborn would say when she saw baby Nora.
“I was dreading having to explain to our 5-year-old, Brooklynn, why her sister was different,” she says. “I didn’t want Brooklynn to think we didn’t love her. It wasn’t so much directed towards Noralynn’s albinism, but more just I didn’t want Brooklynn to dislike her baby sister.”
But to their happy surprise Brooklyn reacted in a way they would never have expected and filled their hearts with joy.
“I didn’t have to tell her [a] thing,” Taylor said of Brooklyn. “She told me that her sister was a snow fairy. And then informed me that she was related to Elsa.”
“As soon as she told me she looked like Elsa, I couldn’t help but laugh,” she says. “It was the most comical, yet heartwarming response. And I hoped the world would be just as accepting as my 5-year-old was.”
Rare disorder
Nora was diagnosed with albinism, a disorder that limits the production of pigment responsible for hair, skin and eye color.
Those who have the rare disorder have sensitivity to the sun and can have vision problems.
Taylor says she was relieved with the diagnosis and information as it was something the family could deal with but her biggest hurdle was the reaction from everyone else.
Taylor was shocked at the amount of rude comments she got from strangers.
“People would point and stare. And we even had people yell across the grocery store to ‘look at the little albino.’ Of course, this upset us. We expected that type of behavior out of children but never from full-grown adults.”
Family strength
“How do you protect your children from the world being so cruel? How do we as parents make sure that our children do not grow up disliking themselves or things about themselves because they are different?”
But the strength the couple had as a family unit helped them to overcome these ignorant comments. Her own family sees the beauty in being different.
“We’ve been given such a special little girl to raise and to grow with,” gushes Taylor.
“She not only brings joy to everyone that she meets but to anyone who gets to see her unique features in photographs.
“Having albinism is okay. Being different is okay.”
The love in Brooklyn’s eyes when she looks at her “snow fairy” says it all. ❤️ Noralynn is perfect; absolutely beautiful!
Mommy and daddy, you have two beautiful little girls!
We are all unique and our differences should be celebrated. What a beautiful family and how lucky they are to have two such beautiful girls both inside and out.
Please share to raise awareness and to celebrate this baby’s beauty.
