The Breton girl at Left Hand Mine. For RP reasons it would make much more sense for my character to adopt a Breton rather than a Nord - but... she's not an Orphan. Is there a mission you do where her parents end up dead? That's one thing but my character isn't quite evil enough to murder them and then say 'You wanna come live with me?!'

What's up with that? I'm pretty sure she's one of only two Breton children that are adoptable.

No mission. You'll have to kill her mother - or stage an "accident".

There are three adoptable Bretons: Blaise (Katla's Farm, Solitude), Erith and Clinton Lylvieve (Dragon Bridge). Maybe Clinton's parents are dead in your game and you could adopt him?

Francois Beaufort at Honorhall is also a Breton.

Murder?
I always wanted to kill for no reason...

I have found that you cannot murder a childs parents and get them to be shipped to HonorHal.You have to kill them in a way that NO ONE knows it was you.

I only have enecdotal evidence to back this up, but I tried it with 4 kids(no, I do not do this in my games..it was an experiment from a saved game).

Theirl blacksmith in Riverwood,Carlotta Valentia's kid,Minnette(who I know gets sent to the orphanage,as she is there in one of my toons games)and the kid inkeeper from Old Hroldan.I tried killing all there parents.They didn't budge,even thoughy some had dialogue regarding"missing there dead parent".

Ie:"y dad always said I was gre-gari-ous...I miss him so much"..said Minnette.

Good. Frickin' sick thing to do, I say.