Hugs and Hope
A Mom's True Story of a Journey of Inspiration

This is a personal story of hugs, hope and a full-circle journey of inspiration. Gail Lynne Goodwin and her daughter Carly, a Nashville recording artist, co-wrote the song, Baby Come Back Home, a song that honors the unrecognized, often unnoticed, sacrifices of a soldier's wife. From the success of a simple audio postcard with the song released on the Internet, the Goodwins visited bases across America, filling requests from the troops.  

During a trip to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Gail was inspired. After Carly's concert, a young Marine lamented that America had forgotten the troops. Inspired to prove him wrong, Gail and her daughter, Carly, set out on a trip across America. Gathering personal messages of love and support on newspaper scrolls, the Goodwins amassed more than 18 miles of messages on the Baby Come Back Home Soldier Scrolls.  

Just after Congress signed the scrolls, the Goodwins departed on a 29-day tour to Iraq and 6 other countries in the Persian Gulf, literally wrapping the love and support of America around each of the 18 bases on the tour.  

After a concert at Al Q'aim, a remote base in Iraq, a young Marine named Jesse approached Gail with a simple request. He wanted a "mom hug".  He explained that he'd been off the base for more than 30 days, hadn't had a shower and asked if he could still have his hug. He explained that he'd just turned 19 and hadn't been touched in 9 months. As Gail hugged him, wiping tears, Jesse explained that his job required him to live in a ditch- alone for 30-35 days at a time.  More than 800 other Marines guard this stretch of desert and do the same thing, coming back to the base for only a few days every month or so. Jesse explained that he survives the solitude by listening to his iPod and shared that he's "always looking for good inspiration".  

Gail, a mother of two, including a son just a few years younger than Jesse, was inspired to make a difference, including sharing "mom hugs" with many of the Marines. By the next concert the Internet had been buzzing between bases and there were more requests for "mom hugs". It grew as the tour continued.  

Gail bought the domain name InspireMeToday.com in 2004, but never had the time to build the site. Feeling like she'd been hit by lightening with Jesse's request for inspiration, Gail returned home and founded InspireMeToday.com, a website which provides great inspiration from a different luminary each day. As a thank you to Jesse, Gail's company then gave a free Premier Membership to our troops- all 2.5 million of them- so that Jesse's ipod will always be full of great inspiration. (A gift in excess of $250 million dollars!)

Gail is now going back to Iraq with a group of Inspirational Luminary speakers and a real live military mom to share hugs and hope with our troops. 

InspireMeToday.com plans to host a contest and choose an actual military mom to surprise her son/daughter in Iraq by coming along on the tour. The finalist will be selected from the letters emailed to InspireMeToday.com. Ideally, Gail will announce to contest on Oprah and will enlist Oprah's help in selecting the best mom to join the tour. The best letters will be posted on the website for our troops to read. The lucky soldier will be surprised during our tour by having his/her own mom present. Other inspirational luminaries who are also moms will be present to give "mom hugs" too. 

The story has come full circle in that a mom (Gail) originally went to visit our troops in support of her daughter. She met a Marine in Cuba and from there was compelled to show appreciation to our troops through the scrolls. Then in Iraq, Jesse inspired Gail to create InspireMeToday.com, and now she's coming back with more inspiration for the troops, more "mom hugs" and a real mom for one special soldier. We want to inspire America to open their hearts, show their appreciation for our military, share more hugs and make a difference in their own world.