Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5154975-20140830155800/@comment-24936039-20141029172807

JCAdlawan wrote: How did you know that Sara Fisher (Storybrooke counterpart of Ingrid the Snow Queen) is an Orphanage Caretaker? It is obvious that she adopted Emma but she didn't work in her orphanage.

We have seen baby Emma in Season 1 (basically Pinocchio running away and abandoning his obligation to look after Emma). Teen Emma has only been seen in this season. So there is a 14 to 17 year gap in Emma's backstory - Lots of things could of occur where she gets shuffled around the system from orphanage to orphanage as social services got defunded across the USA.

Whether Sara Fisher was a foster mother or an actual social worker (perhaps both) has not been well established yet.