It’s snowing heavily here in The Midwest, so I decided to cozy up on the couch with some friends and watch the Oprah Show. It’s a great show today because it’s all about some amazing love stories. There were five love stories and one that we already wrote about here at Six Degrees of Inspiration.

Love Story #1: Tom and Gina

Tom wrote to the Oprah show and asked if he could have tickets for his wife Gina. They’ve been married for 17 years. So the Oprah show production team had a plan. Tom whisks Gina from her school, blindfolds her and puts on some headphones for her, takes her to the airport where they head for Chicago, and overnight they stay in a hotel the blinds are shut, and there are literally no signs as to where they are, or even what country they are in.

The story reaches a climax when finally the blindfolds are gone and Gina is face to face with Oprah. Shear surprise, excitement, and of course a little crying. Not a real love story in and of itself, but a great surprise in my opinion. It has to be a good husband to really try to get his wife into the Oprah show. Gina has been trying to get into the show for 10 years. Wow.

Love Story #2: Courtney and Angela

Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance, a love story that took a while. over 20 years in the making.

Courtney and Angela first crossed paths 24 years ago in graduate school at Yale University. She noticed the “alluring” Courtney, but he didn’t remember Angela at all. Years later, Angela was in a play with Courtney’s then-girlfriend. Again, there was no romance. Over the next decade, Courtney’s career took him to Broadway and Angela moved to Los Angeles, where she eventually landed her Oscar®-nominated role in What’s Love Got to Do with It.

After running into Courtney in 1994, Angela agreed to go on a date with him. “Dare I say, it wasn’t memorable,” Angela says. “He just seemed like a really, really nice guy, which translated [to] ‘kind of boring.’”

But after a second date at the driving range, something clicked and they spent the rest of the week together. Angela says she felt like a teenager after their first kiss, complete with “pinpricks and chills.” Angela then flew to Milan, where she replayed the kiss over and over in her mind. At the same time, Courtney flew to his mother’s retirement party in Detroit with exciting news. “I had to go to tell my mom that I think I’ve found my wife,” Courtney says.

Love Story #3: Emmanuel and Veronica

This is the story that most touched me, really brought me to tears and a sincere knowledge on just how powerful INTENTION truly is. That desire and intense love truly has no bounds.

When Emmanuel was 8 years old, civil war broke out in his home country of Sudan. When his village was invaded and soldiers burned his home, Emmanuel escaped into the forest. All alone, Emmanuel hid for 13 days, surviving on wild fruits and stagnant rainwater. Fleeing the rebel soldiers, he joined 26,000 other desperate children—now known as the “lost boys.” These children wandered for three months, walking 1,000 miles across the desert in search of safety.

Eventually, Emmanuel found his way to a refugee camp in Kenya, but suffered from nightmares of what he’d seen. “I’d seen friends shot right on the spot, friends being eaten by lions and hyenas,” he says.

Then, in 1998, Emmanuel met a girl named Veronica in the Kenyan camp. “I was captivated and all I wanted to do is just stand there and just watch,” he says. Emmanuel only spoke with Veronica for a moment before asking a man with a camera, who happened to be nearby, to take their picture. (Above: Veronica is second from left. Emmanuel is on the far right.) To Emmanuel’s joy, the photographer actually returned to the camp and gave him the picture for free.

Emmanuel finally got the chance to come to America in 2001 with literally only the shirt on his and the picture of Veronica. Apparently, Immigration had dispersed the surviving boys all around the world including Canada, and one Christmas, Emmanuel went to Canada to visit friends and came to a church there. To his astonishment and surprise he saw Veronica (the face so vivid because of the picture).. they embraced..

After he returned home to North Carolina, Emmanuel and Veronica spent countless hours talking on the phone. He was ready to propose. Following tradition, he called Veronica’s father in Sudan and asked him for her hand in marriage. In return, her father asked for 68 cows as a dowry, which translates to roughly $12,000 in American money. “How am I going to find $12,000?” Emmanuel asked.

When word of Emmanuel’s plight spread, two of his friends, Cece and Kristin, came through. Wearing “Got Cattle?” T-shirts, they organized a fundraising walk for true love.

The “Got Cattle?” fundraiser actually raised $15,000, and Emmanuel and Veronica were married in July 2006 in Canada. Emmanuel and Veronica have big news they want to share. Although they are still waiting for immigration permission so they can set up a home together, Veronica is pregnant!

And that’s not the only surprise. The Oprah Show arranged for a visa to let Veronica visit Emmanuel in America for Valentine’s Day.

Love Story #4 Carrie and Sujeet

Two remarkable individual with Down Syndrome find their future in each other. Love does not turn a blind eye no matter your circumstances, and this is definitely something that they had to overcome..

Carrie finally met Sujeet who is a talented musician who also had down syndrome, after six months of dating they finally decided to get married. What was really romantic about the whole thing was that they decided to have two ceremonies.

With their parents’ approval, the couple celebrated their union with two dream weddings to reflect both of their religions—Sujeet is Hindu and Carrie is Christian. Since they had ceremonies on July 1 and 8, they celebrate their anniversary on the first and eighth day of every month!

Love Story #5 Owen and Mzee

And now we come to the story that we wrote about around a month ago. About the Hippo and the Tortoise, an unlikely friendship. But a love story nonetheless…

Following the devastating tsunami in December 2004 that killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions in Southeast Asia, people across the world opened their hearts and wallets to help.

The effects of the tsunami were felt in many coastal countries, and not just by humans.

When Owen, a wild baby hippopotamus, was washed away from his herd on the coast of Kenya, he was left orphaned. The following day, nearby villagers came to Owen’s rescue, bringing him to a local wildlife park. There the search for a surrogate parent led little Owen to Mzee, a cranky 130-year-old giant tortoise. The frightened hippo adopted the old tortoise as his parent. It seemed like love at first sight as Mzee, who was a loner for years, instantly accepted the baby hippo as his own. The pair began eating together and sleeping side by side.

Today, more than two years later, Owen still follows Mzee around the park. Owen and Mzee have formed such a tight bond, workers at the park are worried that Owen is acting too much like a tortoise. They have brought in another hippo to teach Owen how to act a little more hippo-like.

My Love Story

I guess, in the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell everyone a little about how I found the love of my life. Well, not in detail anyway. I’ve known her for quite a long time now, we were high school classmates, but never romantically involved until in college. And like Angela Bassett, it wasn’t love at first sight, but through the years, I’ve come to know that there is no other person that I would like to spend my days with.

We grew apart in College, but it’s only been in recent months that we have come back together. I love her so much, and I tell her that I am truly blessed, each and every chance I get.

Love has found me alright, not an exceptional story like the preceding, but extraordinary for me.