5-year-old's reaction to 'snow fairy' baby sister is simply beautiful

When Taylor Dunnavant and her partner Chris found that they were pregnant for a second time it was the first of many more surprises to come. 

The pregnancy was completely to her first with 5-year-old Brooklynn. She was in pain and losing weight- so she was convinced she was having a boy. 

The mum from Missouri went into labour two weeks early. 

As she pushed he nurse told Taylor that her baby had a full head of hair. It wasn't red like hers or brown like Chris's- but shocking white. 

After the final push, the couple got to see their baby for the first time. 

"When he set her down, all I could do was yell, 'Oh!'" she told 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.'"

After the initial shock wore off, Taylor began to contemplate what little Nora's hair colour could mean.

"That's when all the thoughts started swarming in. 'How did she get white hair? What caused white hair? Is our baby albino? How could she be albino? Is she okay?' I kept shaking," she recalls. "The nurse told me [the shaking] was probably just from labour, but I think it was my nerves because I was terrified of what could come from this."

One of her biggest fears was that her older daughter, Brooklynn, wouldn't accept her new baby sister. It turns out however, that they needn't have worried at all. 

Brooklynn immediately recognised Noralynn's white hair as something magical- she was a 'snow fairy' related to Elsa from Frozen. 

"I didn't have to tell her [a] thing … She told me that her sister was a snow fairy. And then informed me that she was related to Elsa," Taylor says. "I should have known that children see no differences."

Brooklynn's love for her new sister also helped Taylor and Chris put things into perspective. 

"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."

Upon seeing a specialist, Nora was officially diagnosed with albinism, something that neither parent had ever encountered. 

"With Nora specifically, it is unlikely that she will ever have any other hair colour other than white," Taylor explains. "It is possible she may gain some pigment, but unlikely. The same with her eyes. She will most likely need some type of corrective lenses, like glasses. We will forever have to lather her up in the highest SPF of sunscreen that we can find. There is a chance that she could have trouble with hearing."

But Taylor is confident that these side-affects are nothing that they can't deal with. 

"A little weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Her condition no longer was on my mind, knowing that she is healthy, just different." 

At first, strangers commenting on Nora's hair and eyes bothered Taylor, but she is now more accepting of the genuine curiosity shown. 

"Before Noralynn, Chris and I had zero knowledge of albinism," she says. "We're learning more and more every day. I'm slightly upset with myself, because I was so worried about the condition without knowing anything about it. But, now I know and everything's going to be okay.

"We've been given such a special little girl to raise and to grow with. She not only brings joy to everyone that she meets, but to anyone who gets to see her unique features in photographs. This is definitely going to be a different journey than we had planned for, but it's going to be okay. Having albinism is okay. Being different is okay."