Pilot Delivers Family’s Christmas Miracle
By Jessica Wald
She hasn’t been able to spend Christmas with her family for a decade and Christmas 2025 was almost no different, until one pilot made their Christmas miracle come true.
Sister Mary Angela (Kayla Gross, daughter of Steve and Lori Gross, Napoleon), entered the convent and has since spent the Christmas holiday with her fellow sisters at the convent.
Last September, Sr. Mary Angela went to Rome to continue her studies and over the Christmas break in December 2025 was going to be flown to Minnesota to be able to spend the holidays with the sisters at the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus convent in New Ulm, MN.
If her parents helped buy a ticket to Bismarck from Minnesota, she was going to be able to spend a day of break with her family in Napoleon.
Lori said they purchased the plane ticket from Minnesota to Bismarck a while ago and were excited to spend a day with their daughter. On Monday, December 22, while watching Monday night football, Lori said she and Steve received a call from Sr. Mary Angela that she was stuck in Atlanta, GA, as the plane was having technical problems and she won’t be able to make her connecting flight from Minnesota to Bismarck. “I was so sad, but I didn’t want to make a big deal about it and make her feel even worse,” said Lori.
In the meantime, Lori’s other daughter, NHS freshman Hope Gross, returned home from basketball practice and learned of the news. Lori said she knew Hope was also bummed, but told her to say some prayers and ‘you never know what will happen.’
While sitting in the airplane in GA, Sister Mary Angela noted, “They kept making. . .