General Update on Life after Katrina

I’ve been a little delinquent in my posts of late. After three weeks on the coast, I returned to “work” last week (well, at least the work that pays the bills) and that return coupled with the associated travels to Ohio have reduced the time available to post. So, here goes a summary of what is going on with us lately.

Unbelievably, remarkably, inconceivably blessed

That may sound trite, but I hope ya'll understand that I really, really mean it. Holly and I are flabbergasted at the generosity of so many people right now. God is working and moving in ways that we have never experienced. People have given us the clothes out of thier closets, money (and not just a little), food, shelter, discounts and more. Just today, the doctor wouldn't let me pay the co-pay. People are calling me asking where they can send money. I get emails asking where care packages can be sent. And the amount of encouragement and compassion from all over the country and the world seems to know no bounds. Please offer thanks to God for all of the blessing that have been showered upon us these past few weeks. And of course thanks to all of you who have been the vehicles of that blessing.

Wind Policy Insurance Adjuster

After three mostly unproductive calls to FARA (the insurance provider for the state insurance cooperative), I finally called Bobby Huebner, the adjuster, directly again Monday to find out what we should expect in terms of next steps (this is the same fellow who had previously told Holly upon his initial visit to our ‘home’ that it ‘looked like a water event’). I expected that he would tell us that we would receive some sort of official denial documentation from the insurance company so that we could move forward with FEMA, etc…. However, he is in the process of securing an engineer to come out and do a ‘wind versus flood assessment’ on our property. He said that should happen this weekend. After that, he’ll follow up with us to let us know the results. I’m not exactly sure how they can make that determination so I’ll be interested to see what they come back with. I guess right now we’re just hopeful that they will at least provide some sort of compensation… it certainly doesn’t seem as though they intend to pay the full amount. Continue to pray that God will provide.

Homeowners Policy

They said we’re not covered but that they would provide 2 weeks worth of living expenses. If anybody has any ideas as how to come up with a number (we’ve been staying with friends who have most graciously opened their home to us), please let us know (yes, this is a shameless request for blog comments).

Diplomas

Some of our dearest friends did something very special for Holly and I. We hadn’t been able to visit with them since the storm as they’re temporarily living in and have put their children in school in Jackson, MS. Anyhow, last weekend they were on the coast and we finally got to see them. When they showed up they had in hand very nicely framed and matted copies of our MSU diplomas. Jenny and Bubba (he only gets some credit for this because he was smart enough to marry her) had contacted Mississippi State and they were able to reproduce our diplomas from their archived records. In fact, they look even better now than before as the frames and mattes now match (the originals had been separately framed before H & I were married). We had thought we might be able to try to get that done at some point but it was very, very, very kind of J&B to take care of this for us. So, many, many thanks to J&B and their brood. I'll try to post pictures later... the ones I took on Sunday didn't come out so well (I think the battery was nearly dead).

Slowly Very Quickly

I’m sure I am waaaay behind in this proclamation, but Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 ROCKS. I’ve listened to it before, but until today hadn’t really paid that much attention to it. I Googled it and came up with this very interesting Wikipedia entry. I highly recommend these tunes.