Hong Kong (CNN) -- When Maia Stack returned to the pagoda, or tower, where she had been abandoned as a baby she was overwhelmed by what had happened there 11 years earlier. "I remember thinking, 'Wow, I wonder if my birth family hid behind those bushes or something'" said Stack, now 18 years old, on returning to Hangzhou, China. "I felt very disengaged throughout the entire process. I kind of removed myself from the situation because it was too emotionally challenging." Stack is one of tens of thousands of children -- 95% percent of whom are girls -- who have been adopted from China since its government ratified international adoption in 1992.
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Thousands of girls are adopted out of China each year, ending up in homes around the world
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Many of them find identity and purpose in returning to China to visit their roots
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Adoptive parents often choose to travel back to China frequently with their adopted children
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Many adoptive parents feel it a duty to teach their children about where they came from
As for Stack, the high school senior said she wants to take a year off before college to volunteer in a @placeholder orphanage.