HOUSTON -- This month's Jefferson Award winner always wanted a large family. But Terri Jaggers never dreamed it would reach into the dozens. As an advocate for children in foster care, she has improved the lives of many children. KPRC Local 2 showed how she does it.

"My wall of finality. These are the children that -- like spitballs on the wall -- these are the ones that stuck. This is my brood of happy kids," Jaggers said.

Beyond six children featured in pictures on a wall, five of whom were adopted, Jaggers could tell you stories of at least two dozen others.

Jaggers and her husband, Pat, have fostered 24 children. But they don't see it as out of the ordinary.

"There's a lot of people that do a lot bigger, grander things than just loving," she said.

She maintains modesty even though the sheer numbers of lives she has transformed speak volumes.

"Last year my goal was to try to help facilitate and be a part of 250 adoptions in Texas," Jaggers said.

But she took it a step further.

"Two-hundred-eighty-seven Texas foster children were placed in loving homes because my home is not big enough to take them all," she said.

After more than two decades of being an advocate for foster children, Jaggers is now on the board of directors for the National Foster Parent Association. She is also involved with National Adoption Month and founded the Clothes For Kids Project, the Spirit of Christmas Project and helps orphaned children in Costa Rica get clothing and an education.

"There's nothing that means more in life than to have a child come back to you years later and say, 'I believe in myself because you believed in me,'" Jaggers said.

She stores some of the most touching mementos from children through the years in a drawer to remind her how the role of mom to so many still means so much.

"My mom has taught me a lot about family and love and just opening yourself up," said Shelby Jaggers, Terri's daughter. "She has a heart of gold that's bigger than Texas, bigger than anything and I think she deserves a lot."

Jaggers also coaches gymnastics alongside her daughter, and is the reigning Mrs. USA America.