The New Faces of O.C.’s Future

Within the first few minutes of the new year, the future of Orange County could be heard in the cries of newborns.

The first boy and first girl of 2000 were born to immigrant couples--one from Cambodia, one from Mexico. The arrivals brought new year joy to their families and provided ringing reminders of the changing demographics that will shape the county in the early years of the century.

Nearly 60% of current Orange County residents are white, but demographers predict that within 20 years white residents will account for only 41% of the population, with the majority made up primarily of Latinos and Asians.

These changes “provide us with wonderful opportunities of all sorts of ethnic diversity and innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Scott A. Bollens, chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at UC Irvine.

The large number of immigrants in the county also was reflected in the first twins born Saturday, daughters of a Belgian-born father and U.S.-born mother.

For the families of the year’s first babies, though, those grand themes were obscured by more personal dramas.

At 12:02 a.m., Nearyroth Lach, 38, greeted the new year not with the pop of a champagne cork and the buzz of noisemakers, but with a final push and baby James’ first gasp and cry.

It was a long labor, lasting about 15 hours at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center. Even then, James, weighing in at 6 pounds, 15 ounces, was early. He wasn’t due for another nine days.

Afterward, Lach absent-mindedly rubbed her stomach and asked for orange juice. Father Bonrith Peou, his hair still mussed from hours of coaching and hand-holding, looked dazed but proud.

Having fled their native Cambodia after Pol Pot came to power, the couple settled near family and friends in Santa Ana. Now they’ve created a new generation and given him an American name--James.

“I hope he’s healthy and has prosperity,” said Peou, 37, a Santa Ana electronics assembler.

Five minutes after James’ birth, the county’s first girl of 2000 wriggled her way into the world at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange.

Ebony-haired Anayeli de Jesus Dector, 7 pounds, 15 ounces, also was early--six days ahead of schedule.

Parents Elena and Javier Dector of El Modena, both 23, also have a 7-year-old daughter and had hoped to keep it that way for a few more days, fearing Y2K computer glitches or power failures. Elena Dector was so determined to wait for her due date that she didn’t tell her family when her water broke and finally confided to her sister-in-law when contractions began.

“Everyone that planned to have the first baby in 2000 didn’t have it,” the mother said at 1:30 a.m., cradling her daughter in her arms. “We weren’t planning it, and we had it.”

The mother is from Puebla, near Mexico City. The father is from Veracruz. She stays home with the children while he works as a tree trimmer.

Javier Dector came to the U.S. in 1996. Elena came a year later, following her husband and her family. Her own father came to the U.S. in 1977.

They came for a better future, and they hope for the same for their daughter.

Asked what she wanted for her baby, Elena Dector replied, “To be a good student and to go to the university.”

About the same time Elena Dector was cradling her baby, doctors at UCI Medical Center in Orange were helping deliver what is believed to be Orange County’s first twins of the year.

The twins arrived nearly three months prematurely after what father Sven Vanrenterghem, 26, described as a difficult labor for his wife, Carrie, 25. Aleah Hope was born at 1:33 a.m. at 2 pounds, 12 ounces. Sister Kayla Faith was born a minute later at 3 pounds. Both girls, the couple’s first children, are fine, the father said.

The twins’ mother is from Oregon, and she met and married her husband in London while attending a Bible study program. Sven Vanrenterghem was born in Belgium but moved around the world with his family as his father changed jobs in the hotel industry.

He attended high school in Indonesia then moved to Orange County to attend Biola University before transferring to Calvary Chapel Bible College. He was serving an internship in London when he met his wife.

The couple see divine intervention in the timing of their twins’ birth.

“Carrie was brought over here at 23 weeks. They were convinced they were going to deliver her that night,” said the father, a computer instructor. “There were close calls like that throughout the pregnancy. It’s just a gift from the Lord.”

UCI demography expert Bollens said the county’s changing population can prove a blessing for the region--if people are willing to look at it that way.

“Are we, as a society, going to invest in these kids of a different culture?” he said. “That’s our choice, because these kids will be here.”

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Times staff writer Jeff Gottlieb contributed to this report.