Settled into a leased cottage on the marsh on the Gulf

Dear Family and Friends,

Ted and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary yesterday amidst moving yet again.  We have been able to secure a nice little cottage located in our community on the marshland and Gulf.  We are much closer to the water than we were in our home that Ike took out (yes, Ginger and Millie, I do know that hurricane season is coming again in June and I have been reading the predictions for this year).  It is amazing to stand on our long deck and watch a myriad of birds taking off and nesting in the tall spring grass of the marsh.  

We leased the cottage from Victor Emmanuel of Victor Emmanuel Nature Tours.  Victor bought the cottage some years ago because of its location on the water and he is kind to allow us to lease it for a full year.  Again, we know we are better off than many of our dear friends who still have no home to call their own.

We are continuing the battle with Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and they have not paid what they should to us or anyone else.  Our protest in Austin on March 13, the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Ike, was effective and we got their attention, which was our goal.  The claims adjusters began calling on Saturday morning offering some of our folks a slight increase, but still not nearly what they should be paying.

We have engaged the services of a highly sought after public adjusting firm out of Florida, The Public Adjusters, and signed on with Chip Merlin of the Merlin Law Group, also out of Florida, to pursue our case should it go on to litigation.  We feel we honestly have no other options and think that these professionals may have a better chance than we, as individuals, would ever have against the  system we are facing.  I am very impressed with Chip's record and he is representing us personally because of the Yahoo Group, BolivarBLUE, and the number of contacts we have by way of that means.

BLUE continues to grow and provide important information to our members.  We are having a large meeting on Saturday where we will meet members of the adjusting team, weather experts, engineers who have been on Bolivar, and many other professionals engaged in this major recovery effort.

Steven, my oldest grandson, son of Steve and Nikki in Tennessee, has come to live with Ted and me here in Texas.  He is a fine boy, very intelligent, and enjoying going to school at the brand new campus on the beach.  He has completed his first three days successfully and came home with a 110 on his very difficult spelling test today.  He will be going into ninth grade next year and we are very proud of him.  We trust Brendan, the youngest, will come for much of the summer here with us as well.  Ted is a wonderful teacher, instructor, and pal to these boys.

My son, Brent Stancil, resigned Val Verde Baptist Church in Groves where he has pastored faithfully for some 12 years.  He will be moving to Saint Petersburg, Florida, where he will pastor the Community Baptist Church there.  His last Sunday in Texas will be April 26th.  It is a sad move for DeAnna, who has been thoroughly involved with the church since her move to Texas. I do trust that all of my good friends there in Florida will visit his new church and help to welcome him to The Sunshine State.  Val Verde has not called a new pastor, and the search committee is busily trying to determine God's will for this good group of folks who love the Lord and each other.

Sorry I have been so negligent in keeping up the blog site, but with the Yahoo Group and everything else I am involved in, I have very little time.  I am including a photo taken at the big protest in Austin on a cold, rainy, windy Texas day.  I had the opportunity or challenge to question Jim Oliver, the director of Texas Windstorm Insurance Association for quite a while on the wet parking lot.  We did not get satisfactory responses needless to say.