Nolan, Amber D.

[BWI Admin]

Adult Application

Hi! My name is Amber Diane Nolan and I am a co-head of Willow House. I am 37 years old. Please use she/her when referring to me!

Basic Information

Where do you live? The Orphan Village
Are you married? If yes, to whom? Yes, to [TBD]
Do you have any children? If yes, list them. The Willow House children are my children
Is your family open to adopting children or adolescents? We'd love to

Appearance
Height: 5'7"
Build: slender
Hair Color: dark brown
Eye Color: brown
Distinguishing Features: slight dimples in both cheeks
Brief Description: If a person's appearance could be calm, Amber has a calm appearance. Her skin is very fair with a smattering of freckles across her nose, her mouth curves gently upward even at rest, and her skin is mostly unlined even in her late thirties. Soft dimples appear in her cheeks when she smiles, but her eyes almost always hold a hint of seriousness that some people find confusing or even off-putting. Amber usually wears her dark brown hair loose and waving to her shoulders, but sometimes she twists it into a thick braid.

Personality
Strengths: slow to anger; aware of her surroundings; deeply loving; very affectionate; responsive; patient; astute; understanding; kind
Flaws: stubborn; closed-minded; rational; slow to act; critical; high expectations; pushes too hard; doesn't handle discomfort well; disconcertingly quiet; judgmental
Likes: horseback riding; thunderstorms; journaling; fireplaces; camping; one-on-one time; long paperback novels; peppermint candies; holidays; snow
Dislikes: loud noises; fluorescent lighting; rushing; recklessness; carelessness; tardiness; mouth breathing; loud chewing; excuses
Vices: hard candies
Fears: deep water; ice;  high bridges; loud noises; miscarriage; blood
Personality: Amber is the sort of person you wouldn't expect to have great reflexes, but who constantly watches what happens around her and therefore is able to catch everything before you even realize it's happening. She's highly observant and very aware of everything that happens in Willow House. It's almost impossible to lie to her because she is so conscious of other people. She treats the people around her with incredible love and affection and she is generous with her time, affection, and her resources. At the same time, she is very slow with her praise and does not offer it lightly; you know that when she does offer you praise, she is sincere. Instead, she focuses her energy on helping the children and adolescents for whom she cares to discover things about themselves to be proud of. Many say she'd make a great therapist. She just smiles and accepts the compliment. Once upon a time, she was one!

Relationships & Discipline

How do you normally get along with other adults? Amber is... not everybody's cup of tea. Most people of all ages have conflicting feelings about her when they first meet her, and for a lot of adults that doesn't go away over time. She's warm and kind, but there's something aloof about the way she interacts with other adults that some people find disconcerting. She can work with other adults without having problems with them and she communicates well, but a lot of adults feel judged by Amber (even when she's not judging them).
How do you normally get along with teenagers? Depending on your perspective, Amber either gets along very well with teenagers or not at all with teenagers. She isn't strict, but when you cross her boundaries, she is an incredibly harsh disciplinarian, and those who have recently met her find it hard to get a good read on her. It can be especially hard for them to understand when she quickly returns to being incredibly loving, kind, and soothing when the punishment is over. This takes a lot of getting used to, and while teenagers are getting a read on her, they often don't feel like they get along with her at all. Once they come to an understanding, however, most adore her and advise others to give it time before judging her.
How do you normally get along with children? Relationships with children are reasonably good for Amber, mostly because they aren't looking to catch her behaving out of character and most see the good in her. She responds well to this, which is why her best relationships are with children or teenagers who have come to know and understand her. Amber gets along fine with children.
Link to your discipline sheet: click here ✅

Orphan Village

What is your role at the Orphan Village? Co-Head of Willow House
Which house or building do you work for? Willow House
Do you live in the Village or commute? Amber and her husband live in the village.
Do you have any special training, certification, or skills relevant to your role? Before coming to Birchwood Isle, Amber was a therapist (for adolescents and adults)
Do you prefer to work with a particular age group? Which one? No preference
Do you struggle with a particular age group? Which one? No

Briefly describe your caregiving or mentoring style. Simply put, Amber is watchful. She sees basically everything. Not much gets by her. She's not particularly strict, but she is incredibly harsh. This means that she goes out of her way to stop kids from doing something that will require punishment before they can get to that point. It's the "it would be a bad idea to walk out that door right now" spoken as a child is about to leave the house after being told not to; it's realizing that a teenager is considering sneaking out of the house because of peer pressure and nipping the source of the problem in the bud before the teenager sneaks out their window; it's steering a little child back in the right direction just as they begin to wander; it's knowing when a young adult is most likely to blow off their responsibility and reassigning the responsibility before they can.

Describe how you see your role in the village. Amber is a mother in the village. It's that simple, as far as she's concerned. She lives in this house with her children and she takes care of them. Outside of Willow House, she doesn't see any responsibility at all -- which is not to say that she won't act if she sees children behaving poorly, regardless of where she is or to whom they belong.

Is there anything else we should know about your role in the Village? Amber takes her role seriously and she has serious disdain for any adult in the village who does not take their role as seriously as she does hers. While she doesn't see herself as responsible for children and adolescents from other houses, she will speak up if she feels that another adult is not demonstrating responsibility for their own.

Background

Education: MSW
Work History: Amber worked as a therapist for adolescents and adults until three years ago, when she stopped due to her first marriage ending
Current Goals or Challenges: Amber's first husband has been stalking her, which is one of the reasons she came to the island
Reason for Living on Birchwood Isle: To protect herself and her family from her first husband.
Brief History: Amber had a difficult home life as a child. She was always quiet but also naturally inquisitive. Although she rarely behaved in ways that most adults would have considered bad, her mother had little patience with developmentally-appropriate curiosity, and she yelled frequently. Amber's father drank too much, and some nights they yelled at one another, other nights they both yelled at her. Sometimes her father struck her in the face and he often left bruises on her or her mother.

She ran away when she was 14 and met Brad. The two of them married as soon as they were legally able. Amber became pregnant, and Brad became violent. She lost three pregnancies before she gained the courage to press charges against him, then file for divorce. Her current husband helped her through the process, and while they worked together, they fell in love, marrying almost as soon as the divorce was finalized. Since then, Amber's first husband has been released from jail and has been stalking Amber through her therapy practice. She had to quit her job to protect her clients. When she and her current husband discovered Birchwood Isle, it seemed like the perfect place to escape because of its vetting process. Now that they are on the island and have stable jobs working for the Orphan Village, she is finally starting to relax.