anchored pictures disappear when updating linked text

Which is why I brought up both...but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and pay for what you need.

InDesign is not Word. A lot of newcomers have trouble with that hurdle. Despite superficial similarities, they are different tools for different jobs. Expecting a document to flow seamlessly between them is not... reasonable.

Developing a document in Word and expecting ID to maintain a continual update is an example of their differences. It's not just a different file format (as it might be between Word, and, say, WordPerfect or another non-Word-clone), it's a completely different document structure and feature set.

I do a lot of work in both Word and ID, usually the heavy writing and editing in the first, then a one time import and prep for publication in the latter. I also write in ID — whole books, sometimes — because I'm a fairly visual writer. I don't quite grasp why you are writing in Word only for continual input into InDesign. Maybe you have your methods or madness, but it's not a very efficient workflow for most projects. The compatible tool InCopy (which is included with the Creative Cloud app set, no additional cost — and if you have ID only, I think it's included with that package, too) might be a better 'writing' tool; if you have reasons for staying with Word, there are helper tools such as Bob L. suggests.

But in general, InDesign is an end-stage tool, accepting constructed and written format from many sources and managing it for efficient publication. Things don't go back out of it easily, and it does not handle update of the text content very gracefully.

If you want to explain why you're using this workflow, the expertise here might have some useful suggestions for you. What is InDesign doing for you that Word does not... and vice versa?