Keri Johnson had a dream.

For 12 years she learned all she could about the adult developmentally disabled by working with them in a variety of settings.

"It's been a dream of mine for 10 years," said Johnson, and Thursday she held an open house for everyone to see Sacred Hearts, where she hopes to care for up to four adults with developmental disabilities.

Perhaps if there's one thing that drives Keri Johnson it's that, "You get rewards from this job you don't get from other jobs."

Sacred Hearts is a small home right on County Road D, about a mile from the Grantsburg Airport.

It rests on the property owned by her and her husband and is smack, dab in the center of some of the best outdoors Mother Nature can provide. "There's a lot of wildlife here," Johnson says proudly.

Originally from Minnesota, Keri Johnson can also do "respite care" and is working with "placement officers" to secure adults for Sacred Hearts.

Her goal is to make Sacred Hearts "More of a home than an institution. "We're more like family here," she said.

The facility is wheelchair accessible and provides professional care by a trained staff.

As for the name Sacred Hearts, Johnson said, "We played around with ideas and a friend of mine came up with it. We thought about it and decided on it," she said.

"This is so awesome. I'm proud of my daughter and I'm glad she's doing this," said Johnson's mother, Roberta Vernon of Braham, MN.

"The more she can do to help people and make them comfortable, well, that's her job," said Vernon.

Thursday's open house was fruitful because two possible client showed interest in Sacred Hearts.

Johnson acknowledges the fact that, "In a lot of ways Wisconsin is behind Minnesota," in developing group homes for adult developmentally disabled.

In her way, Keri Johnson is helping Wisconsin catch up.