[KarenInCa]

Hi,
Interesting question. When we first started our process for our first daughter, we assumed that the normal process was to adopt without a specific China protocol. I don't know about adopting a child that's your own relative in China, but normally adoptions from China go thru the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs). And the children adopted are in orphanages. The normal age range for a baby is 6 months to 18 months old at referral, and it takes 6-8 weeks till you get Travel Approval (TA) from China, so the youngest your child will be at the time you get her will be 8 months old. But in the true sense, CCAA will consider 6-24 months a baby, even if you request as young as possible. Our first daughter was 16.5 months old at the time we traveled to get her, and she had a lot of baby left in her.
The time to get the paper work together is typically 4-8 months. Some if it is waiting for government stamps of approval. At this time, the expected wait till referral is 3-4 years, unless you opt for special needs (which can be very minor - relatively speaking). Then the wait time is about half. When we adopted our first daughter in 2006, the average wait was around 10 months. And no one really knows if the wait will start to decline or continue to rise.
There are new requirements that also must be met, as of May 2007.
Here is a link to the full list of requirements
New Regulations for Adopting from the People's Republic of China

If this is your first child between you and your husband, adding a child can be a very fulfilling change to your family unity.
Best of luck.