Meet Your New Mrs. North Dakota International 2014

Hello!  Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Janelle Steinberg. I am so honored to be Mrs. North Dakota International 2014.  It is a great privilege to represent today’s married women, North Dakota, and the Mrs. International pageant system this year.

I was born in South Dakota and from there my family moved to Harwood, North Dakota.  There I was able to grow up in the “suburbs” of Fargo, North Dakota. I graduated from Oak Grove Lutheran High School in 1994.  I took a grand tour of colleges: I first did a year in St. Paul at Northwestern College, followed by a year at Minnesota State University Moorhead.  While at MSUM, I cheered for the Basketball Team.  Next I landed at NDSU; and I finally had found a college home. I received a Bachelor’s of Art degree in Apparel Construction and Design, with a minor in Business and in Merchandising in 1998.   I consider myself a NDSU Bison through and through.

I worked my way through college at the Buckle.  I loved working in retail.  It is always changing and busy.  I started with the Buckle when I was 16 and “retired” from there when I was 24.  While with them, I had the opportunity to work in many positions, everything from assistant manager, manager-in-training to seamstress.  It was a wonderful place to work.

While I was with the Buckle, I met my husband, Keith.  He came into my life to buy a watch.  He never did buy a watch from me that day, but we did end up on a date.  We quickly fell in love.  Within two months we were already talking about marriage.  (Don’t tell my parents)  They probably knew anyway, because within five months, we were engaged and we were married by the end of the year.  This may seem quick, but hey, when you know, you know.  And I knew Keith was the one for me.

We are the extremely proud, overprotective parents to six amazing and busy children, Claire is 13, Loren is 10, Nate is 8, Marc is 7, Karl is 6, and Aubrey is 5. Now this is where our story really gets interesting…We had decided to be done having children after our first two girls were born, so we got a puppy to round out our family.  A few short months later we found out we were having another baby, and along came Marc.  It is amazing for me to think that while Marc was being knit together in my womb, my son, Nathan was being lovingly formed in the womb of another.  The boys are only six months apart. While God knew the plan for my family all along, it took us almost another four years to become the family of eight that we are today.  In 2010, we became the foster parents of two sweet brown-eyed little boys.  Twenty months later, those boys along with their sister, legally became ours.  I am not sure what will happen next for our family, but I am done telling God how big I think our family should be and am just ready to listen.

So there you have it… that’s a bit about me.  I am ready to walk this year with my family and you.  Together we are on a grand adventure and I’ll be sure to keep you informed!

Blessings

Janelle Steinberg, Mrs. North Dakota International 2014