VICKSBURG, Miss. (WJTV) – A five-year-old Mississippi girl is in need of a kidney donor.

A’Rihanna Ames, of Vicksburg, was born premature. She had a twin who passed away during birth.

“I was pregnant with mono-mono twins. They were in one sack. They had one placenta. I had to have an emergency C-section, because they both was wrapped around a cord. Unfortunately, Rihanna was stillborn because she was wrapped around a cord. A’Rihanna was, too. She had a blood clot on her brain. She had a collapsed lung. And by her being born early, her kidneys were not developed. So, that’s how she ended up having Stage 4 chronic kidney disease,” explained Shannon Randleston, Ames’ mother.

That’s when the real journey began.

“They’ve been telling me from day one day she will have to start dialysis. She will need a kidney eventually, but I didn’t think that it was going to happen at the age five. I thought maybe when she came as a teenager, we may be thinking there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Randleston.

She hoped her daughter’s condition would improve with age, but the process of finding a donor became difficult.

“It’s like a waiting game, and I don’t want to play this game. No, I don’t want to wait. I want the process to hurry up, so I can get her better, so she can be the kid as she want to be,” said Randleston.

Although Ames’ condition has limited her in many ways from operating as a normal child, she still remains joyful and hopeful for a better tomorrow.

“She can’t go out here and play softball like the rest of them. She can’t go play kickball or nothing like that. And she wants to do that, but I’m scared. I don’t even let her go outside, because I am so nervous. So, I just want her to get the help that she needs, so she can be the kid. I just want her to be a normal kid. That’s it,” her mother said.

The average time spent on a kidney transplant wait list ranges from three to five years. Compatible donors must be 18 to 73 years of age with an O+ blood type. Click here for more information.