My favorite crackpot theory is that when Emma gave birth to Henry, she held him in her own baby blanket that Granny had made for her. It’s the same blanket she came through to our world in, and it’s the only thing she had from her own parents. It’s the one thing she had amongst her possession to offer her newborn son. Yet, maybe Tinkerbell, working in disguise as a social worker, convinced Emma to give Henry up for adoption, and to “give him his best chance.” Then Tinkerbell contacted cursed Mr. Gold, who even then was in the business of shady, less-than-legal baby trafficing (as evidenced by the fact that he’d been paid to take Ashley’s baby in “Price of Gold”). Regina, being the town mayor, was willing to pay Mr. Gold big bucks to procure a baby. After all, Mr. Gold had been Rumplestiltskin in another life, and Regina knew that trait had carried over when she gave him a false identity. That is how Regina adopted the son of the savior.
Yup to all of this.