I got the answer from Mary Lindsey at allexperts.com. She says:

"Seems like the main problem here is having the graphics and arrows look exactly like you would like without any "disappearance." If this is the problem (and yes, it has continued to plague many of us), text wrap the image to In Line with Text, and place the arrow (Insert Shapes Arrows), then copy both images (including the paragraph mark the image is sitting on), Paste Special / Windows Enhanced Metafile, then crop the image out."

I was able to get by with just changing the graphic to "in-line" and using Crl + E to center it. Put the arrows in, grouped them, and now hope I don't have to move the whole business bcs the arrow group will not attach itself to the main graphic. At least I have a workaround!
Beth