Editor's Note: Tuesday’s American Morning audience expressed deep concern for Haiti’s orphans. Some who were already in the process of adopting children from the country shared the very thorough vetting process that takes place in order to adopt. Others suggested alternative options to adopting, such as sponsoring children in-country who can stay with loved ones but benefit from assistance.

• Jennifer: I am a 44 year old single woman who has chosen adoption to start a family. I began this long and complex adoption process in August of 2009. The country I have chosen to adopt from is Haiti; I made that decision over 5 months ago and have followed all of the guidelines and met all of the government requirements to the fullest. I am one of the 900 or so people estimated to be "already in the process" of adopting from Haiti. My paperwork had been scheduled to be sent to the Haitian embassy the week of the earthquake. Adoption is not a quick process; there is a home study process that takes a minimum of 6 weeks; government approval that can take 6-8 weeks; dossier preparation that can take months. There are legitimate people like myself in this world whose lives have been scrutinized, back-ground checked, interviewed, etc. and approved to adopt. It's unfortunate that this small group of people to which I belong are now being lumped in with others "rushing to adopt from Haiti". I have been praying that people like myself who started this process long before the earthquake will not be categorized as people trying to wrest non-legitimate orphans from the streets of Haiti. Before the earthquake there were over 400,000 orphans in Haiti and a great need for international adoption; the country welcomed adoption from the U.S. and other countries. Now it seems that out of valid fears of child trafficking and exacerbated by the naive acts of the church missionaries, all of us trying to adopt from Haiti get a bad name. I'm a single woman who tried for years unsuccessfully to get pregnant through artificial insemination; adoption was the route I chose to have a family and gave me hope for a joyous future. Please remember that there are many of us out there with legitimate hopes and plans to adopt from Haiti. I pray every day that when the country is ready, the Haitian government will again open its doors to legitimate adoptive parents. My choice t o adopt is not out of some sudden humanitarian urge because of the scenes of the earthquake we have all seen on TV. This is my only hope for a family.
• Susan: Haiti children are beautiful, but here is some food for thought – I have an idea wouldn't it be better to send money to Haiti so families wouldn't have to be broken up. We have these organizations who sponsor children. Let's start sponsoring children over there and send food, clothing and money providing shelter, education etc., instead of having the families broken up. Now, if they have no families I can see adopting them. Those parents over there who gave their children over to these organization wanted them to have a better life and was doing this out of love for their children. Lets help families stay with their own blood families if we can first. Also, we have so many children as well, in the United States who are going hungry let's also help our own. These church organizations or any organization should do more in regards to helping the needy here in the USA and also adopting here in the USA. It they want black kids there are a lot of them here who can be adopted out. It's kind of shameful to see people sleeping on the streets and adults and children going hungry here in America. Let's clean up the homeland first. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves the question why there are so many African Americans and other children not being adopted out.