We arrived at our host church around 4 PM and got to meet the host families that we would be staying with. This was our first time with host families and we were really excited! Patricia, Ashley and I were put with the Hacker family and they were so kind and gracious to us. They had a son and daughter, as well two adorable dogs and tiny baby kittens! We fell in love instantly. Our host "sister", Lauren - known as Lolo - is currently one year in remission from Leukemia and she is absolutely amazing. She was in the hospital for 7 months and is such a fighter. I am so glad we got to get to know her and her amazing, bubbly personality - you would never know she had been so sick just a year ago. We will definitely be riding for her in the days ahead, as her strength fighting cancer is remarkable. You can watch this video her family put together for her to get to know a little bit about her: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UaZTch_Pn1A
That night, the Hackers took us to their community pool to hang out and have dinner, then our host mom drove us around Omaha to show us all of the sights and fun things! Lolo and her friend came along with us also and had lots of fun being our little tour guides. We got to see the downtown, ride on some awesome outdoor slides, see the bridge that held the state line between Iowa and Nebraska, see the Century Link Center (where they hold Olympic time trials for swimming!) and the stadium where they hold the college World Series (where UVA just played 2 days ago!). We had a great time, I just wish we had another day to spend in Omaha because there are so many cool things to do. Mrs. Hacker also drove us around her neighborhood to show us all of the famous people's homes there...surprisingly a lot of famous people live in Omaha! We got to see Warren Buffet's house as well as the homes of the owners of Omaha Steaks which was pretty neat.
We headed back to the Hackers around 10 PM to shower and got ready for bed. Lolo is a sweetheart and let us stay in her room and we each got a super comfy bed. I couldn't have asked for a more amazing host family. Tomorrow we will get to have breakfast with them before heading on to Lincoln, Nebraska. We are all excited to get back on our bikes after our 4 days off - hopefully our legs remember how to pedal!