Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was released Wednesday from TIRR Memorial Hermann rehabilitation hospital in Houston, marking a milestone in her recovery from a Jan. 8 shooting.

The Arizona Democrat will continue treatment at the hospital as an outpatient while living with her husband, Mark Kelly, in his home in League City, Texas.

“Congresswoman Giffords has shown clear, continuous improvement from the moment she arrived at TIRR five months ago,” Dr. Gerard Francisco, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said in a statement.

“We are very excited that she has reached the next phase of her rehabilitation and can begin outpatient treatment,” he added. “We have no doubt that she will continue to make significant strides in her recovery.”

Kelly hailed his wife’s progress in the statement. “The remarkable progress she has made since then is a testament to both her single-minded determination to get better and the team of medical professionals overseeing her care,” he said.

Giffords was shot in the head Jan. 8 during an attack that killed six people and injured 13, including the lawmaker. She had been holding an event for constituents in the parking lot of a grocery store in Tucson, Ariz., at the time of the attack.

The first portraits of Giffords since the shooting were posted on her Facebook page Sunday. The photos were taken May 17, the day before surgeons placed a plastic implant in her skull as part of her treatment.