When I get asked what I like about you I always tell that when I first met you I was fascinated by your grasshopper legs, the way you jumped on your bike, moved on stilts, and danced like no one was watching.

Handsome as the sun, and looking carefree and hungry for life.

But to really answer that difficult question, the first thing to say is that you are the best listener in the world. From our very first conversation in the waldenlaan house you made me feel understood, not judged -- free to express myself and to be.

A true gift. A quality, yours, that is truly rare and precious. And even though they sometimes drive me crazy, it is also our differences that I love:

Your curiosity that has taken you hitchhiking around the world, your view of the world encapsulated in your photos, your way of thinking so different from mine.

I love your care, toward us certainly-you take care of our family at the cost of forgetting yourself-but also toward the world.

The existential doubts that sometimes take hold of you are always directed toward others, you are always thinking about how you can make things better, how to make timeless sense of your life.

For me today is not about sealing a commitment.

That commitment between us is already there, has always been there, ever since you asked me to drop everything to move to amsterdam after less than six months together, ever since I said yes I did it without ever looking back, ever since we gave birth to these beautiful children of ours. Today for me is a celebration, a celebration of our love, of the good fortune we had to meet so by chance, or perhaps fate, of the 10 years we have spent together and the many, many wonderful years ahead.

Today for me is a celebration, a celebration of our love, of the good fortune we have had to meet each other so by chance, or perhaps by fate, of the 10 years we have spent together and of the many, many, wonderful years ahead.

Today is the time to tell you in front of everyone how much I love you: I love you and I don't know what I have done to deserve the good fortune to be by your side every day. And so to be a little traditional:

I, Gaia, choose you, Arnoud, as my husband and promise to be faithful to you always, in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, and to love and honor you all the days of my life.