Bittersweet Haven Farm

In the year 2014 our family had many changes. We never anticipated that we would be relocating back to the metro area after being gone for 22 years but that is what happened. We were praying for the Lord to show us his plan and He was faithful to us and did. Deb found a new job in the Monticello area.  The youngest son Isaiah would be graduating in 2015 so we decided to complete his high school years at Pequot Lakes High School.  John completed his term on the city council and even though he had planned to run in the Mayoral race, he decided to step down. We prepared our home in Crosslake to be placed on the market. We created a list of everything we would want in our next dream home. In February we thought we had found it even though it was needing a lot of work we signed papers and John began arranging for the remodeling project to begin. Because we had decided to pursue this new venture as a farm business we had found financing through the farm agency. At the end the property appraised $80,000 below the price. We than began the search again. It was only a few days when we found a property that was brand new to the market. As we entered the home and walked the property we could feel that this was what the Lord had been preparing for us. From that moment forward every detail went smoothly and we were able to close on the property in November. After seven months of living with our daughter, Elizabeth and family Deb unpacked her suitcase. We were home and the weekends now consist of John traveling back and forth from Crosslake.

Farm name; One day Deb was walking the property with the dogs and she came across a patch of bittersweet. For years she had hoped to find this beautiful plant in all the adventures in the woods of the north but had never found any. She felt that this was what the Lord was speaking to her that this adventure has been bittersweet; leaving her friends and family in Crosslake and living apart from John and Isaiah for the past year but it was the Lords way of making this dream farm happen. She did not share this with John and they had discussed a few possibilities of names for the farm but as Christmas was approaching Elizabeth had asked what we were thinking about for the name of the farm. John replied that mom had found some bittersweet on the property and perhaps this would be a good name for the farm. This is how the name Bittersweet Blessings was born.