On a bittersweet day for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the outgoing congresswoman spent her final hours in Tucson as the city's U.S. representative, finishing the meeting she started on the morning she was shot and bidding farewell to constituents who supported her through a long recovery.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Sunday put what was perhaps the largest looming question in Arizona politics to rest with her announcement that she will resign from office in order to continue her recovery from an injury severe enough to make her survival alone seem like a miracle.

The race to replace Rep. Gabrielle Giffords begins in earnest Monday as the Arizona congresswoman's planned resignation sets up a free-for-all in a competitive district.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announced Sunday she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago.

According to officials in Washington, her resignation, first disclosed on the congresswoman's Facebook page, is expected to take effect on Monday.

Optimism reigned after U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ first interview since her assassination attempt, both for her recovery and her political future.

Smiling and cheerful, fussing with her interviewer's hair and nestled in the arms of her husband, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords displayed remarkable progress from the shocking images of her the day after she was shot in the forehead outside a Tucson supermarket.

But she still struggled to form complete sentences and said, with her husband's help, that she wouldn't return to Congress until she was "better."

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords plans to spend much of her birthday working on her rehab regimen.