My husband and I were married May 31, 2008. He's truly amazing and the absolute love of my life. He feels, and shows that he feels, the same way.

Our first year was filled with tremendous stress because we had to deal with getting my Greencard (which is still in process) and family members that were seriously ill. So while some couples have a blissful experience we have gone through our challenges and come out of it with a stronger sense of "us". And now as we approach our first anniversary we are looking forward to taking out marriage to the next level (I suppose it's a process that starts amazing and only gets better).

I want our marriage to be incredible. I can't wait for the stress of the Greencard process to be over (we are in the last step of waiting for our interview which should be in the next couple months). And I'm enjoying building our life together. I'm eager to learn more.

My question to the board are:

What do you do to connect with your partner during challenging times? The book suggested doing the REI (which we did tonight and was really cool) ... but what do you do to show your husband/wife that you appreciate them. Daily or weekly rituals perhaps?

How do you manage conflict? How do you make-up?

Thanks in advance. I'm very much wanting to fulfill all of my husbands needs and he very much (if not more) on a mission to make my life amazing. But as newlyweds it's nice to rely on the knowledge of others.