I think it's important to note that blocking the category of notifications from appearing isn't the same as the "Block & Report Spam" option.
I'm not quite sure where to find the option to make that category of notifications unblocked -- it'd be so much easier if I could handle the phone! One option here would be to clear the cache and data from the Messages app in Settings>Apps. This will reset all of the app's settings to default (but will not erase any saved messages -- that data is saved in a different system app).
I just clear storage/cache and the block message went away and now the text messages come thru! Thank you so much for the help