Fostering a full Life

Janelle Steinberg Reigns as Mrs. North Dakota

By Jill N. Kandel • Photography By Ben Nash

Janelle Steinberg is an energetic, joyful woman. As the reigning Mrs. N.D. International 2014, mother to six children, and Children's Program Director at Triumph Lutheran Church, it is more than her hands that are full. It is her heart.

Janelle met her husband Keith while she was working at the Buckle. "He came in to buy a watch and got a wife," she quipped. They were married a year later to the day.

A few years later, with two children of their own, the Steinberg's were approached to adopt a baby whose mother was only fourteen years old. "We went through the whole process and fell in love with the baby and gave her a name," Steinberg said. "When the young mother decided to keep the baby it felt like a death to us." Steinberg got rid of all her baby items saying they were done. Within a short time she was pregnant with her third child.

"We still felt like the baby we'd lost in adoption was 'our' little girl," Steinberg said. "We found out that they both ended up in foster care and we wanted to do for another child what someone was doing for 'our' child. So we started looking into foster care."

The morning after the Steinberg's received their foster care license, they received a call to take a pair of brothers who were three and four years old.

"After a year of foster care we were asked to adopt them. And their sister! We were shell-