Hi, we are the Essners! We are Sarah and Jade, our mom is Yammi Wear's Vice President. I'm the oldest and Jade is my baby sister.  Mom and Dad adopted me from Shanghai, PRC on October 5, 1995 when I was 7 1/2 months old. I'm in the third grade and LOVE gymnastics. I am on a gymnastics team and have been competing since second grade.

Jade is 3 years old. Mom and Dad adopted her from the Cambodia on June 1, 2001 when she was 5 1/2 mos. old. Yamisha and I are from the same orphanage.

Besides our moms Yammi Wear work, she also works full time as a Credit and Collections Coordinator for a Major Cosmetics company. You can email our mom at karla

My name is Kate. My mom, Joann, and dad, Dean adopted me from China in 1995 when I was 8 months old.  I bugged them for years for a little brother.  Well, my wish finally came true this past November.  We all traveled to Cambodia to pick up Patrick and bring him home!  He is 2 ½ years old.  We had tons of fun.  Having a little brother around is a lot of work.  He is no longer allowed to play with my Barbies.  I like to keep their heads on their bodies.  He has other ideas.

My mom teaches Kindergarten here in NJ, but she also works for YammiWear. She helps Auntie Yassin write product descriptions, advertisements and stuff like that. I like the way she describes all the stuff.   I also get to wear really cool clothes and model them on the website.  It is a lot of fun posing for the camera.  When we were in Cambodia, I got to help mommy pick out fabric to send to Yassin so she could make Blankets of the World and really nice clothes for other kids.  I think her job is called Public Relations Manager. I am not really sure what that means, but she loves it! joann

 In March 2001, Yassin began the adoption process. It was during the wait period that I decided to make outfits for Yammi, my daughter to be.  I have been sewing for over 18 years and have made school uniforms, women's dresses and suits, curtains, valances, pillows, alterations etc. but because I never had a little a girl, the interest in sewing girls outfits was not there.  Being an only child and having all boys, never gave me the push to make girls clothing, but now that I was getting my little girl, the joy of making her something from my heart was driving me to do it.  I was so proud of myself and the outfits, I shared it with the other adopting families on the ANA Yahoo group. They all loved them.  My  dear husband and the members of the group encouraged me to sell them and start my own business..

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At the time, I was so comfortable with making clothes just for my daughter and so well established in my computer career that I did not feel it was the right time.  A few weeks later, still making outfits, I decided to make an outfit for Jade the week her mother Karla went to Cambodia to get her .  Karla and I became good friends through the group.  Her daughter became dear to my heart the minute she posted her picture to the group.  I don’t know if it was because her birthday is December 10th and mine is December 6th but that started our friendship.  When Karla arrived from Cambodia, she received the dress in the mail and contacted me immediately.  She insisted that I start doing this as a business.  In fact she said I should name the business Yammi Wear after her dear niece Yammi—that is the nick name she gave her. 

I presented the idea to the group and orders started coming in.  The news spread to other adoptive families on newsgroups and emails.

I quit my established computer career and started Yammi Wear.  In my heart I didn’t want to do this for the money, I wanted to make a difference.  Because of my adoption of Yamisha, I wanted to give something back.  I contacted Lori Jones the director of ANA and asked about the Orphanage fund and how I could contribute. 

It was then I decided to donate 15% of all orders to the Foster center in Cambodia.

Now one year later, Yammi Wear’s continuous dedication to helping orphans in Cambodia, we will be making a donation to initiate the dance program at Kompong Chhnang. We have also made the commitment to provide continuous funding to Kompong Cham Orphanage for an English Literacy Project
Click here to read about the project

What started out as something of the heart has grown and touched many children's hearts and lives around the world, something that  I am very proud of.  Yammi Wear has grown from just making clothes to making cultural items that kids will treasure forever.  Such as the popular Blankets of the World TM. They are a wonderful gift for any adopted child, person from another country, or even an American.  We won't reveal any more surprises. Just go through the website catalog to view more.