When he was 8 years old, Michael Kaynama had one wish. Unlike most children his age, he didn't want a bicycle or a video game.

"He said he wanted a dad that would live in our house," said his mother, Beth, who had been divorced for six years. "He was ready for me to have a relationship."

As a 38-year-old single mother, Beth was ready to move on also. "I decided that I'd finally try dating again," she said. One of her first efforts was to call a singles hot line. "I figured that if I was calling it, there had to be some good people also calling and that it was a good way to meet someone."

After four or five calls to the hot line, Beth met John Olcott, a network computer specialist from Pikesville. After a lengthy phone conversation, John asked her out. Beth agreed, but there was a hitch.

"It was Thanksgiving week and I told him that I wouldn't be able to get a baby sitter for Michael," she said.

Much to her surprise, John didn't protest. "He seemed to accept from the very beginning that we were a package deal," said Beth.

Later that week, with a sleepy Michael in tow, Beth met John at a local bowling alley. The three of them bowled, talked and laughed. Beth said it was her ideal date. She and John hit it off, and, more importantly, so did John and Michael.

"Michael took to him immediately," she said. "John talked to him just as much as he talked to me!"

"I didn't want Michael to feel excluded or pushed away because I was dating his mother," said John.

Michael joined his mother and John on their next few dates, one of them to see the film Toy Story 2. It wasn't until their fourth date that Beth found a baby sitter.

"John never complained that he and I didn't have any time alone," said Beth. "That was really special, because Michael had been stuck with just a mother for six years, and he relished having a man around."

After just one month of dating, John told Beth he loved her -- and Michael. Two years later, in August 2001, he proposed.

Arriving home from her job at Dansoss, a refrigeration and air-conditioning company, Beth found all the lights off and the blinds pulled shut. Harry Connick's music was echoing throughout the house, and she could hear Michael's voice whispering "Is it time yet?"

John flipped on the lights, and gave Beth a card asking her to marry him. She accepted, and John motioned to Michael, who came out of the bedroom carrying a ring and humming Felix Mendelssohn's Wedding March.

Beth and John were married on Oct. 26 at Camp Chapel United Methodist Church in Perry Hall in front of 68 guests. Michael walked his mother down the aisle. Beth, John and Michael spent their honeymoon in Niagara Falls.

"I've never been as comfortable with anyone as I am with John," said Beth. "But the best thing about our relationship is that from nearly the first moment, we have truly been a family."

"I wasn't looking for a ready-made family," said John, who takes Michael to movies and on Boy Scout trips. "But when you're my age [40], it can happen. I used to live in an apartment with barely any furniture and now I've got a house, and a family. It's great."

And how is Michael, who is now 11, adjusting to the idea of married life?

"He is just loving it," said Beth. "He loves it so much that sometimes I wonder if he'll need a mom anymore!"