Adoption in Islam?

[HEPZIBAH]

Could someone enlighten me please?

I am currently reading a novel which is written by someone who has spent (as far as I understand) quite some time living in an Islamic country. I'm enjoying it as a piece of fiction but the piece I am struggling with is that one of the characters was adopted - legal paperwork etc. - into a family, and one that he had no linked family line with.
I thought adoption was not allowed in Islam.
Is this something that changes from country to country? For example, would it be forbidden in e.g.Egypt but allowed in e.g Saudi Arabia?

I'm a bit confused and curious about this so would welcome some feedback.

[Who2]

Always a good question.
Years ago a question I put to Pearl of Sunshine.

When I 1st met her, she had 5 kids living in a flat up TV st.
We* acquired the flat next door and knocked 3ft holes in the walls so the kids could run about.
*(I was evading having a UK alcohol license, not saving the world!)

Nick and I visited her one day she had 4 screaming babies in her bedroom and 25 other kids running around the flats.
We used to call her "our little nazi" but with 30 or more kids, she had to be in control.

When in London we had to accompany her to Egyptian Embassy nights so she could berate their 'so-called officials
whilst we had to drink bloody mango juice.

On adoption ? she claimed it was not possible.
I said, well we will have a very clever multilingual/computer literate little army when they all grow up.
She also asked about their sex education, I suggested Nick, she totally scoffed at that idea....

Ps: Adoption in muslim countries ? Go ask an Iman, qed...

[HEPZIBAH]

Who2, your mention of Pearl, and the Sunshine Home, has helped jog my memory. I never met Pearl but I did meet her successor (name escapes me for the moment) and I think it may well have been her that said none of the Sunshine children could be adopted because it was forebidden in Islam, hence why they wanted to build a bigger Sunshine Home/community to encourage their own family units.

I'm still left wondering if adoption is an issue that can be interpretted differently from on Islamic country to another or if the author of the novel I'm reading has made a big mistake.