Does it get any easier?

I'm a green rookie, just beginning to learn at the age of 39. I'm going through Alfred's books, as well as Andrew's online lessons. I'm about 3/4 through Alfred's level 1 adult book, and I just finished Andrew's 11th lesson. I'm learning, and I'm slowly (VERY slowy) improving. But every single song takes a Herculean effort to learn. I have to play each song about 500 times before I have it mastered. And, of course, I'm studying and learning to read music at the same time. Every day I also do Hanon exercises, as well as Mozart's trill exercises. My question is: at some point, am I going to get over the hurdle? In other words, at some point will a light turn on in my brain, when I suddenly "get it" and this begins to get easier for me?

The change was never that sudden for me, but it became better every day, not by much, but almost 4 years later and practicing alittle bit everyday and you'll see stuff improve.

Just hang in there, an instrument will take a lifetime to learn, and even then there are stuff you havent learned. What is nice is that when you've learned one instrument it's much easier to learn another. The theory is the same, the only thing that changes is the way you play it.

You should change your practice methods. Take a look at the Fundamentals of Piano Practice and read through it and start applying the methods. The more of the methods of the book you apply (such as relaxation, getting up to speed quickly, mental play, new hand motions, seperating hands, short segment practice) the easier it will become but ofc every new piece is a challange and there's alot to learn. Remember there are many ways to do things wrong but one way to do it right (using Hanon exercises for example is in most cases the wrong thing to do). Link to the book:
http://www.pianopractice.org/

I agree with Rickard. The methods described in this book really helped me and I am sure will help you as well.