The Godfather

I have been thinking a lot about families of origin v. families we choose to create. Senior Jefe doesn't have a large family, as the only child of an only child of a Holocaust survivor. I don't have much family I would claim or that I would want any child of mine to aspire to be like. I know that sounds harsh, but I have plans for the uber babies I will some day create. Senior Jefe and I talked about it and in Judiasm, there is a role for godparents in the family, so we decided it might be a great idea to start there.
Finding a godmother is easy and I have 2 lined up: Lyssa, my beautiful, hip, smart friend who understands people far better than I do and Heatha, my smart, practical, stoic friend who is a crack shot and great with power tools.
For some reason, the Godfather position seemed far more difficult for me. Maybe it's because I really love my Dad and Senior Jefe's Dad. I don't know. I struggled with it for a long time and I talked with Senior Jefe about it quite a lot. And then it hit me...It's brilliantly simple. I'd ask the Godfather.
Let me explain. Last year, I became friends with the great guy Ilya. This guy knows everyone and everything and can solve almost any problem. I really haven't met anyone quite like him. Senior Jefe comes the closest. So I started calling him Don Ilya, and suggesting he had mafia ties.
Then we went to DC for a conference last year and Don Ilya, Don Vitaly (our mutual friend), Senior Jefe and I had all ordered Kosher meals. This apparently caused the conference organizers to have to bring in food, all hermetically sealed, for us. This was a packaging nightmare for our working lunch and absolutely hysterical because there was no way for us to eat and not be a distraction to the speaker as each dish was ripped out of its plastic tomb. OMG, it was so funny. And after that, the "Kosher mafia" was born with Don Ilya at it's head.
Two weeks ago, I ran into Don Ilya at the NSF Communication Workshop and I popped the question. In true Ilya fashion, he said he needed to ponder it; it was a lot of responsibility. That was 2 weeks ago. So last week Ilya told me he had made a decision and that we shoul have lunch and talk about it. I feel kind of stupid about it now, but I have been so nervous about what he would say. I really like Ilya. I respect him. I trust him. None of these words are things that easily fall from my lips about people. So we sat down at lunch and then he asked me to explain my rationale for asking him. Great, I thought, what a way to up the anxiety. I did and he agreed, so the Godfather of the Kosher Mafia is the Godfather. Now that my extended family has been created, I can start pondering having kids some day.
Cool huh?