Usually a mother would die, in childbirth or of consumption or some other dreadful ailment, and the father would be unable to cope, so he'd dump the kids off at the orphanage.

The only thing that would save the kids is if there was a daughter (always a daughter, it seems, rarely a son) who would step up and take over the "mother" role so that the family could continue in their existing situation.

Thus, widowers often remarried very quickly to have a woman in the house to care for motherless children.
Or they were sent to orphanages or boarding schools.

Men had little or no knowledge of meal preparation, and until ca 70 years ago, were mainly doing physical labor in the workforce.

Also, remember, there were no Social Security payments for minor children, until well into the 20th century.

My father's mother (my grandmother) died when he was one month old, in 1905. Luckily, there were several young unmarried aunts, in addition to his grandmother, and he and his sister were well-mothered in young childhood, but he and his sister attended various boarding schools, of which there were many at that time, due to early parental deaths.

are speaking about current orphanages. Most of these orphanages are in underdeveloped nations, and they are preying upon poor people in difficult circumstances to take their children.

To my knowledge the author of this article has no connection to adoptee rights or reform of adoption laws, but what she reports is what child advocates and people from adoptee rights groups have been saying: The children would be better served if we assisted poor families in keeping their families together rather than removing children from their families & communities.

What would Jesus do?

That "Father Knows Best" mentality is alive and well, though, and leadership in countries with authoritarian rule often think they know best. They also like the opportunity to inculcate their values system into the youth in the old "Get 'em while they're young" spirit.

but many that are critical of the explosion of white wealthy westerners adopting children from poverty stricken countries will cite this very issue. even orphans often have extended family in country. but the countries can make a quicker buck charging outrageous adoption fees, while little of that money goes to address the underlying problems.

i have friends who have adopted internationally, and even some of them have been conflicted about it.