GLOBETROTTING PARTNERS

Caroline Sevier ’03 and Tom Elliott ’03 met on their first day at Bucknell, in 1999, though they took their time getting married, waiting until 2011. Today, they represent a 21st-century phenomenon — the intercontinental marriage.

Caroline is vice present for strategy, defense and space for Airbus, Europe’s leading aerospace company. Her career has taken her family to postings around the world, so much so that their soon-to-be three children will have been born on three different continents — the oldest in Canada, the middle child in Korea, and a little one on the way now in Spain.

Meanwhile, Tom runs a startup, Grabien, which provides and edits sound bites and news clips for thousands of broadcasters, producers and news consumers worldwide. His work is tied to the U.S. news cycle, so he goes to sleep and wakes up on American time. The upside is that he can work from home and doesn’t have to travel much — unlike Caroline, who can be pulled away from home at the launch of a rocket.

According to Caroline, their biggest test came when, living in Seoul, Tom worked all night and slept all day, while she was pregnant with a second child and working to keep up professionally in an extremely foreign environment. The one small advantage of their arrangement was that Tom’s schedule enabled him to take the “night shift” in caring for their first baby, allowing Caroline to keep a normal sleep schedule.

“We knew it was a finite arrangement and powered through,” Caroline says. “Tom made the largest personal and professional sacrifice.”

“Scheduling trips and other time together — opportunities to reconnect — gives us something to look forward to and helps restore our real-life connection.”

Tom looks on the bright side of their current arrangement. Their romantic connection at Bucknell, he says, was forged through a creative- writing class, AOL Instant Messenger and letter writing. Frequent spells apart allow them to return to a mode of connection that has always come easily to them.

“We’re constantly writing each other, and, at least for me, connecting through writing is what’s always drawn us together,” Tom says. “Scheduling trips and other time together — opportunities to reconnect — gives us something to look forward to and helps restore our real-life connection.”

GLOBETROTTING PARTNERS

Caroline Sevier ’03 and Tom Elliott ’03 met on their first day at Bucknell, in 1999, though they took their time getting married, waiting until 2011. Today, they represent a 21st-century phenomenon — the intercontinental marriage.

Caroline is vice present for strategy, defense and space for Airbus, Europe’s leading aerospace company. Her career has taken her family to postings around the world, so much so that their soon-to-be three children will have been born on three different continents — the oldest in Canada, the middle child in Korea, and a little one on the way now in Spain.

Meanwhile, Tom runs a startup, Grabien, which provides and edits sound bites and news clips for thousands of broadcasters, producers and news consumers worldwide. His work is tied to the U.S. news cycle, so he goes to sleep and wakes up on American time. The upside is that he can work from home and doesn’t have to travel much — unlike Caroline, who can be pulled away from home at the launch of a rocket.

According to Caroline, their biggest test came when, living in Seoul, Tom worked all night and slept all day, while she was pregnant with a second child and working to keep up professionally in an extremely foreign environment. The one small advantage of their arrangement was that Tom’s schedule enabled him to take the “night shift” in caring for their first baby, allowing Caroline to keep a normal sleep schedule.

“We knew it was a finite arrangement and powered through,” Caroline says. “Tom made the largest personal and professional sacrifice.”

“Scheduling trips and other time together — opportunities to reconnect — gives us something to look forward to and helps restore our real-life connection.”

Tom looks on the bright side of their current arrangement. Their romantic connection at Bucknell, he says, was forged through a creative- writing class, AOL Instant Messenger and letter writing. Frequent spells apart allow them to return to a mode of connection that has always come easily to them.

“We’re constantly writing each other, and, at least for me, connecting through writing is what’s always drawn us together,” Tom says. “Scheduling trips and other time together — opportunities to reconnect — gives us something to look forward to and helps restore our real-life connection.”