By Staff
I can't read a book - fiction or non-fiction - without reading the last page first.
I just have to know how it ends.
I search the Internet for clues to the next episode of my favorite TV shows. I read film reviews to get a better idea of the plots of movies.
It's not that I don't like surprises; I'm just so impatient for all the details.
So I'm on pins and needles knowing that in less than two months, a new member of our family will appear - and none of us knows whether my sister's baby is a boy or a girl.
That doesn't stop us from wondering.
Within 24 hours of the big announcement, my brother and I had a bet going - I'm guessing girl, and he's decided it's a boy.
My mother is going on her own intuition that it's a girl. Another relative - who probably has more experience than anyone since she's a midwife - thinks it might be a boy.
There's even a Web site at which you can put in your guess for the baby's sex, weight and height, and time and date of birth.
And my sister and her husband are just enjoying all the fun and games.
I realized recently that there is at least one person in the world who knows what the baby will be - the woman who performed the ultrasound and asked if Wendy and Greg wanted to know the baby's gender.
Imagine that - one person, who sees this sort of thing every day, knows the answer to a question that has inspired so much speculation.
I think Wendy and Greg have chosen the right path, even if Wendy is tired of receiving green and yellow unisex baby clothes.
It's perhaps the one great secret you can keep from yourself. You can find out how the book ends. You can peek inside the wrapping paper or shake the Christmas presents.
But you can keep yourself from finding out the secret of the newest member of your family.
Either way, this is a baby that will be welcomed with so much love - and attention, judging by the amount of speculation generated about the gender. And all anyone can ask for is that a healthy, happy baby joins the family.
But I still want to know - and I can't wait to meet him or her.
Kerry Whipple Bean is publisher of The Brewton Standard. She can be reached at 251-867-4876.